Original Release: AIDS Help Austria, 2004, Flash
Produced by an AIDS assistance organization in Austria, Pleasure Island was an attempt to promote condom use via a kinda janky platformer that ends in softcore scenes (if you’ve got the skills!)
Pleasure Island (Flash, AIDS Help Austria, 2004)
Where to Buy: No longer available (download at SWFChan)
How to Emulate: Flash Emulation Guide
Review by: Master-B
It’s tough to find information on this game, but as best I can tell it was released in either 2004 or 2005 by an activist group called AIDS Help Austria to promote safe sex. In kinda a very vague and indirect way, also one with gratuitous Showtime-style softcore scenes thrown in.
So it’s basically a platformer, you’re on a strangely deadly stretch of beach (or maybe just a normal one in Australia), the objective is to traverse one side to the other to reach your waiting sweetheart for the ol’ flagrante delecto. But! The rules of this strange beach say that you can only peep at the action if you score enough points along the way (as it turns out, a little over 30,000 to get the full show).
How do we get points? Picking up random floating roses in the air and condoms (which also restore your health) on the ground, also you get a bonus for the health and time you have left when you complete the level. How do we LOSE points? Getting hit by enemies, which can also kill you eventually.
The trick to all this that is not immediately apparent is that the tulips and condoms respawn, and you need to find a good spot to farm them without getting hit too much, then finish the level with juuust enough time left to reach the goal (farming items is far superior to finishing with a big time bonus). Easier said than done as the herky-jerky enemies can be hard to dodge, and there’s this one big guy at the very end that just seems to randomly decide if he’ll let you by or kill you in each new game.
There is only the one level, sadly, but you can configure the partners any way you want (including girl-girl or guy-guy, each of which gets their own special animations at the end). There doesn’t seem to be a gameplay difference to characters, just pick Hang Ten Joe or Sergio the Latin Lover or whoever according to your aesthetic preferences.
This really isn’t a bad concept, and the gameplay is rough but it actually isn’t too terrible either. With more polish and some more levels, this could have actually been a fun little ero platformer. As is it’s still maybe worth a look for being halfway playable and using a European comic art style that’s a nice break from the usual anime.
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