This week, I spotted a post hailing that week’s “retro gaming classic.” I clicked on the link, and soon found myself immersed in a little-known game called Girl’s Garden.
Girl’s Garden was released back in the olden days of 1984. Developed by an early incarnation of Sega’s Development Division, it is the immersive story of a young woman who must carry out various tasks in order to remain attractive to her player of a boyfriend. It was released exclusively in Japan, though emulators do exist – as I found out to my joy.
At its core, Girl’s Garden is an early example of a dating sim, in which players control the naive heroine Papri, who is frustratingly intent on keeping her horrible boyfriend Minto, despite him having the hots for another girl named Coco.
Amongst the tasks on Papri’s list is flower picking. But it’s not as easy as it seems. If she picks them too early they will die. If she picks them too late, Minto will, I dunno, make her eat them. If she picks the wrong ones then she will be mauled by bears (I didn’t make that bit up).
Girl’s Garden is genuinely a fun little game and a gem of a find for retro gamers. It’s also the debut game of one Yuji Naka, which is a great piece of trivia, though it bears (no pun intended) no resemblance to his seminal Sonic the Hedgehog games that would make him famous. And rich. In terms of genre, it was pretty groundbreaking, and wouldn’t look out of place as a neat little import for the Nintendo DS or even the Nintendo Switch.
It might need a bit of modernizing, and some of the outdated concepts might offend those out there who are easily offended by 8-bit dating sims, but I can see it being a popular way to kill some time on the journey home.
