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Project Rub (or Feel the Magic: XY XX, as it is called in the US) is Sega’s first game for the Nintendo DS. In what is a rather strange concept for a game released outside of Japan, your goal is to win the girl of your dreams. Thankfully, this dating game scenario is just a way to set up a series of mini-games, all making use of the consoles special capabilities.
There really is very little to Project Rub. You play a series of mini-games (or performances, as the game likes to call them) in order to impress the girl you are after. These mini-games can be focussed around four game types: Rub it, where the game involves you moving the stylus across the Touch Screen; Touch it, where the games revolve around you selecting things on the Touch Screen; Breathe on it, where you have to blow onto the Touch Screen (with the microphone below it sensing your breath); Yell at it, where rather unsurprisingly, you have to yell into the DS’s microphone.
The game is split into scenarios, each comprising of one to three performances. Successfully completing a performance will earn you love points, with you requiring 100 to advance in the game. Fail to complete a performance and you will lose love points. It is very simple, but the odd tricky challenge can result in some ‘Smash the Touch Screen a little too hard’ moments.
Successfully completing a scenario attracts the girl’s attention, but before you get to spend time with her, a boss battle awaits. These are slightly trickier mini-games, which for example can see you fighting off a stampeding herd of Bulls. Yes, it does sound crazy, and it is. The assortment of mini-games on offer never cease to be strange, whether you are trying to guide a man out of a snakes body, or open parachutes by typing in numbers. There is little sense to what is going on, but the games are rarely anything but fun.
If there is one area of concern it would be with the games longevity. The game can be completed very quickly, and while the mini-games can all be played individually, how they will hold up over time is hard to tell. As a showcase of the DS’s new abilities, the game is wonderful, bringing the new gameplay ideas that the console promises to deliver, but when compared to another launch title, Super Mario 64 DS, which has a large story mode and a considerable number of mini-games, Project Rub feels a little lacking.
Anyone importing the Nintendo DS will no doubt want to play games that make the most of the consoles abilities, and Project Rub certainly does that. It is a game that almost anyone could play, except perhaps the most hard of hard men, put off by the games rather non macho scenario, but they would be missing out. There is certainly a good few hours of fun to be had with the game, and considerably more if you really like any of the mini-games it offers.
