Tokyo Nampa Street
[トウキョウナンパストリート]
1985年4月
“Now you can experience picking up girls!!”
Tokyo Nampa Street was released in 1985 on the NEC PC-88, Fujitsu Micro 7, Sharp X1, and MSX. The game was developed by Hikaru Sekino and published by Enix.
Hikaru Sekino was part of the same group of young mangaka as Yuji Horii during their university days. He won the 3rd Game and Entertainment Program Contest organized by Enix in 1985 with his game Tokyo Nampa Street, which would later serve as the prototype for all dating simulation games.
The objective of the game is to pick up a girl.
At the start of the game, the player can either hit the streets to meet women without any preparation or directly select his preferred type of woman based on various parameters, including age, personality, and physical traits. Additionally, he has the option to input the phone number of a previous date and retain his previous settings.
Depending on his preferences, the player can choose from various flirting destinations, such as Shinjuku, Harajuku, a women's university, or Yokohama. He can either stay close to the starting point or venture farther, but each trip comes with transport costs deducted from a total wallet determined at the beginning of the game.
The player has a motivation gauge and experience points, along with a schedule to manage. As the player's motivation and experience points increase, he becomes more spontaneous, allowing for a wider variety of actions to approach and attract girls.
There are 55 potential partners, each with clearly defined ages and personalities. The conversation models associated with them are consistent and reflective of the social dynamics of the time.
After meeting a girl on the street and getting to know her, the player can continue the conversation by entering commands using the numeric keypad, similar to Yuji Horii's mystery trilogy, and input information for certain specific actions directly using the keyboard.
He should take his partner on a date to a café, restaurant, nightclub, or to see the sea near Yokohama to seduce her. Each city has its own preferred locations.
The conversation must be conducted at a steady pace and with precision, depending on the girl's mood. Additionally, some actions must be performed in real time.
The player must understand the psychology of the other person through her facial expressions and speech tics, then identify a topic of conversation that pleases her.
The objective is to maintain the girl in a good mood.
The game provides various choices and options. The player can begin by offering his partner a coffee and asking for her name, followed by compliments on her style or her eyes. He can then attempt to touch her shoulder, hand, or chest and observe her reactions. If she is not happy, the player will lose sympathy points. However, if she is charmed, he can take her on a date to a suitable location, which may vary based on the partner’s preferences.
The player can navigate this linguistic labyrinth to achieve his objective: bringing the girl to her room or to the hotel.
Traps are scattered among the girls to seduce. The player may encounter tour guides, lazy girls, or escort girls. Once he manages to bring such a girl to a hotel room, he may face comical situations. If the girl demands marriage before going any further, the player will be forced to marry her if he insists to go through with it. If he brings home an intellectual girl, instead of romance, she will give him a lecture. If he chooses a depressed high school girl, she will start crying and the evening will turn into a disaster.
Tokyo Nampa Street is a highly polished game, featuring a variety of girls, a rich variety of scenes, numerous conversation choices and easy operation thanks to the command selection system. The game defies the technical limitations of its time and possesses a rare charm.
Tokyo Nampa Street is a revolutionary and completely innovative game because it simulates a conversation with an artificial intelligence for the first time. The game is also quite humorous! The conversation strategy feels completely outdated, and the elegant dialogues carry a distinctly retro charm.
Tokyo Nampa Street was a huge success and had a significant impact on future generations of dating simulation games. It can be considered a major milestone in the genre.