Why Must I Be a Teenager in Dove?

When the sun sets on the reign of man and birds rule the planet, who are you going to ask to senior prom? This is the central question of Hatoful Boyfriend, a surreal but highly engaging dating simulator game set in a bizarre bird-dominated future. 

A subset of the visual novel, dating simulators are a genre of video games that play like illustrated, interactive versions of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. As the word “dating” implies, the goal of these games tends to be finding true love. Hatoful Boyfriend is no different—only in this game you play the only human girl at St. Pigeonation's Institute, an elite private high school populated by intelligent birds in a world where humans are all but extinct. Like any good farce, the outlandish premise is played completely straight. Your classmates, teachers, neighbors, bosses, and potential suitors are all avian, ranging from a juvenile delinquent Java Sparrow to a high-strung Luzon Bleeding-Heart to a lutino Budgerigar with a southern drawl and a mysterious past.

Gameplay consists of guiding your character through high school drama, from homework to summer jobs to (squ)awkward flirting.  Do you get fresh with a flirty Fantail Pigeon on field day, or do you cut class to hang out in the library with the shy, bookish Mourning Dove? On Valentine's Day, do you buy your crush hempseed, corn or millet? And why is everybody (or rather, everybirdie, the game insists) so afraid of the school doctor, anyway? For a Chukar Partridge, he certainly is quite sinister.

A concept this oddball requires a good deal of suspension of disbelief, but once past that initial hurdle Hatoful Boyfriend is a surprisingly rich experience. What appears at first glance a lighthearted take on the traditional dating simulator is actually much more than the slapstick and sitcom-hijinks one might expect. Don't be surprised if your choices take you from schoolyard romance into bittersweet melodrama or even dark psychological thriller. Due to the complex branching narrative, each game has the potential to unfold completely differently. Any birder obsessed with conquering a species list will enjoy the challenge of “spotting” all fourteen different endings.

The game's Japanese creator Hato Moa is a pigeon fancier who manages to sneak in a few bird facts—for example, that pigeons reach sexual maturity at well under a year (which makes the teenage protagonist a real nest-robber—best not think about it too much). But bird enthusiasts looking for serious ornithological content or real-life bird behavior will be disappointed. The focus is on fun storytelling, not zoological fidelity or some deeper conservationist message. On the other hand, if you enjoy computer gaming or genre fiction—romance and cozy mysteries especially—there's no reason why you won't enjoy a few evenings playing Hatoful Boyfriend, searching for true love with a cool dove in a world gone to the birds. 

The HD remake of Hatoful Boyfriend is available for $9.99 on Steam, for Mac, Linux, and PC.