Game: NAMCO HIGH

Namco High is the latest video game to come from ShiftyLook, the online branch of Namco Bandai which reinvigorates several of the company's various, more latent intellectual property as webcomics and cartoons. It's only fitting, then, that in this browser-based dating simulator from the creator of Homestuck, you get to pal around with various characters from ShiftyLook's comics and beyond.Well, they tout it as a dating sim, but from what we've played, that's a little bit of a misnomer. You get to engage and interact with numerous characters (15 on the Namco side, three from Homestuck), but things never get deeply romantic. They do, however, get rather humorous in a way which feels rather reminiscent of Capcom's Ace Attorney series—which is never a bad thing.You take on the role of a gender-neutral Cousin from Katamari, which you can rename anything you like, and you find yourself in detention with the odd crew of what Principal Dig Dug and his detention supervisor, King, call a group of "delinquents". Before long, though, you come to find out that your fellow captives aren't so bad after all.