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Pardon the dust! This page includes some jargon that hasn't been added to the site's glossary yet. I'll be around to fix this later, but sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. |
Review: Kitty Power's MatchMaker
At a Glance
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How to Save and Pause:While you can't save in the middle of a date, your progress is recorded after each one. Time needed per session:How long you need to play this game depends on how choosy you are with things like preparing a client or picking a suitable match. If you're picky like me, plan on playing for at least fifteen minutes at a time.
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Does this game pose issues for Christian players?
 | Yes This game has a lot of content that doesn't sit well with Christian morals, such as innuendo laden dialogue, using astrology to find compatible partners for clients, and you will sometimes be working with gay or lesbian couples. Of course, there's also the issue of Kitty Powers being a drag queen, which is a political powderkeg right now. |
Screenshots
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/kitty_powers_matchmaker_0.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/kitty_powers_matchmaker_1.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/kitty_powers_matchmaker_2.jpg)
Game Overview
Ready for a different sort of career? In Kitty Powers' Matchmaker, you're tasked with running a new branch of Kitty Powers' famous match making franchise. Your tasks involve interviewing clients, finding them suitable dates from Kitty Powers' own little black book, and then ensuring that the date goes smoothly. To help with the latter, you'll be spying on the date via a hidden camera and providing your client with advice through a small earpiece.
Things aren't always going to go smoothly however. It could be something as terrible as having the client's ex pay a visit during the meal, or it could be as simple as an unexpected bout of flatulence. Either way, you'll need to be ready to guide your client on how to handle the situation. Most of your options lead to small minigames: fail the minigame, and the client fumbles as they follow your advice.
As you rise through the ranks and become a true love guru, the range of clientele will increase and you'll be able to expand your franchise to be even more luxurious. New features include a salon, a wardrobe, and a gift shop -- each of which are useful in making your client more attractive to his or her date and thus more likely to find that happily ever after.
Ultimately, this is a silly casual game that focuses heavily on having fun. Even if you mess up, you can't really lose, so I'd suggest picking this one up, even if it's just for a one night stand.
Things aren't always going to go smoothly however. It could be something as terrible as having the client's ex pay a visit during the meal, or it could be as simple as an unexpected bout of flatulence. Either way, you'll need to be ready to guide your client on how to handle the situation. Most of your options lead to small minigames: fail the minigame, and the client fumbles as they follow your advice.
As you rise through the ranks and become a true love guru, the range of clientele will increase and you'll be able to expand your franchise to be even more luxurious. New features include a salon, a wardrobe, and a gift shop -- each of which are useful in making your client more attractive to his or her date and thus more likely to find that happily ever after.
Ultimately, this is a silly casual game that focuses heavily on having fun. Even if you mess up, you can't really lose, so I'd suggest picking this one up, even if it's just for a one night stand.
Points of Interest
Everything is a minigame
Minigames are the main game here. Nearly everything you do has a minigame attached to it. If you advise your client to lie, you'll need to spin a wheel to see if they were convincing enough to fool their date. Other minigames have you pick out the client's waiter (or waitress) from a lineup, or you may be tasked with figuring the tip. But don't worry too much; you can spend some of the coins you've earned to cheat at a minigame when you need that extra boost.
Lots of humor
The people that put this game together clearly had fun doing it. Everything is just a little silly, and many of the events that can happen are hilarious. For example, since the dialogue between the couple isn't really important beyond it being a good answer or a bad answer, the voice over is just "oohs" and "blah blah blahs" while the text is full of ridiculously large words.
Of course, if you want a better example of the just plain silly stuff in this game, fail the minigame where your client tries to hold in a fart -- you can fail this particular minigame intentionally. The expressions are over the top and priceless!
Of course, if you want a better example of the just plain silly stuff in this game, fail the minigame where your client tries to hold in a fart -- you can fail this particular minigame intentionally. The expressions are over the top and priceless!
Your own avatar goes a-courtin'
At the beginning of the game you create an avatar for yourself and fill out a questionnaire to determine your preferences and ideal partner. This is a cute aside, but it has a practical purpose. You can allow your avatar go to other player's franchises, and you'll get letters in the mail describing your own virtual love life.
Learn about exotic foods
As part of the date, you'll need to select the meal from the restaurant's menu. This means you'll need to be passingly familiar with exotic cuisine in order to choose something that your client's partner will enjoy. Knowing a few words in foreign languages helps, but you can also pass a few coins to the waiter for some details about each item.
You'll get letters from clients telling you how well you did
Each franchise comes with a mailbox. This may seem like a simple decoration, but it's there for a reason. Once your client has found someone to love, they'll leave the game for a while. Eventually you'll get a letter from them saying what eventually ended up happening. If you did well enough, they'll have continued dating or remained best of friends, but if you do really well, they'll have married and possibly even started a family together! Occasionally, a happy client will also include a gift you can use to help another lonely heart find their true love.
Steam features
For fans of the Steam community, there are a number of achievements that can be earned as you play cupid. A few of these require doing things that you wouldn't have even known to do, but provoke funny results when you do them (hint: click on your client). There's also a set of Steam trading cards to earn and trade.
Daily rewards
If you play the game everyday, you'll be given a reward just for sticking around. This typically amounts to a small number of coins, but every bit helps as you can spend them to cheat at the minigames or unlock new features for your franchise.
Mistakes are generally harmless
Don't worry too much about making mistakes as you lead people to love. You can make up to three gaffs during the date without it being called off, and it takes three failed dates for a client to give up on you. In any case, failure can only hurt your reputation, and that only determines your tip. If you're persistent and keep trying, you'll still make progress -- although Kitty Powers will chide you if you do an unsatisfactory job.
Some people have extremely high standards
The more refined your client or their prospective partner, the more it'll take to impress them. This generally means that the most refined people are snobbish and aren't going to like anybody you try to pair them with. The biggest annoyance with this is that even if they have a good time, they can dump a person like a wet paper sack the moment they get to the car.
Fortunately, you'll eventually get the ability to eject jerks that do nothing but waste your time.
Fortunately, you'll eventually get the ability to eject jerks that do nothing but waste your time.
Concerns and Issues
Should you change yourself for love?
One of the ways to help a client find the love of their life is to give them a makeover. These can be very extensive, effectively transforming them into a new person. This creates something of a moral issue, as it makes it sound like you'll only find that special someone by sacrificing who you are. I don't think this is true or healthy, and the good news is that this is optional and most of the time your clients can find love without it.
Lying may get your client ahead
Finding a compatible partner is hard. While you may sometimes find a perfect match, a lot of the time there will be differences of opinion on important topics. For example, one person may prefer an active lifestyle while the other prefers a quiet and relaxed way of doing things. When there's likely to be a conflict like this, you have the option to instruct your client to lie in order to impress their date. This leads to a quick spin-the-wheel minigame that determines if their date catches the fib or not. If they do, it's a strike against the date. If not, then there will likely be some regrets down the line.
Astrology is used to determine matches
While some of the clients (or their dates) don't think much about horoscopes, a lot of them will. This means you'll need to check that everyone was born under compatible zodiac signs. You don't really need to know much about horoscopes to make a good choice: everybody's signs are colored coded, with compatible signs having the same color. On the downside, astrology is one of the methods of divination that the Bible forbids, placing it in the same category as witchcraft and sorcery.
Many innuendos
There are lot of jokes and silly things going on in this game, but unfortunately some of the humor comes from very thinly veiled innuendos or naughty puns. Granted, there's much worse on TV these days, but it might not sit well with everyone. Some of the more obvious examples are the names of the restaurants ( such as Jerk King and Route 69 ), though the really obvious example is the sign for the Australian restaurant. It's a boomerang. You may not believe that on the initial viewing, however.
Mild nudity
Very little skin is shown in this game; even the decor is covering itself. That said, there's an example of mild nudity to point out, and another example of near-nudity. Firstly, there are cherubs flying around throughout the game. These resemble flying, angelic and rather chubby versions of Kitty Powers, so it's clearly meant to be funny rather than sexualized. The other example is what happens when you successfully form a couple: they share a romantic bubble bath with wine, hearts, and those flabby cupids I just mentioned. The couple appears to be bathing in their swimwear, so very little is actually shown.
Homosexuality
This is probably what will turn most people away from this otherwise fun game. Sexual orientations are part of the gameplay. Additionally, gay marriage is both completely legal and normal in this game's world. This means that your clients may be straight, gay or even bisexual, and you'll need to find them a partner accordingly.
Kitty Powers herself is a drag queen
Just in case this title needed a little extra fabulosity, Kitty Powers is in fact the drag persona of Rich Franke, one of the developers. His reason for incorporating his drag persona into the game was that he felt drag and video games hadn't mixed properly yet, and this was as good a time as any to give it a try.