SPRUNG: A Game Where Everyone Scores. At least that is what the box promises you. I was kind of excited when I found out I was going to be the one responsible for this review. I have always been a fan of “weird” games, and from what I had seen and read prior to its release, SPRUNG was looking to be very much just that.

In SPRUNG, you take control of either Brett, or Becky, best friends who are secretly in love with each other but are on a week long adventure to hook up with the opposite sex at a ski resort. I think I need to specify that by control, I mean control what they are going to say. You see, this game involves no precise movements, only precise wits, puns, and lame come-on lines. In SPRUNG you select what to say in response to other people, and then just sit back and watch what happens.


Now that's a demand!

What this game reminds me most of, is one of those choose your own adventure books. Do they still have those? When I was in fourth grade, there was a series of books where you would read a couple pages and then it would give you options on what to have the characters do next, and you would turn to whatever page you were supposed to go to for the corresponding action. Sometimes the story would continue on, and sometimes something horrible would happen and it would tell you to go back and try something else. That is how this “game” is set up. It is comprised of several “scenes” in which you have to accomplish a specific goal. The goal could be as simple as cheer up your friend, or as complicated as trying to get three girls to thing you are into each of them, all at the same time. Some of the scenes are really short, and some of them are really long. If you are really lucky the longer ones will have a couple checkpoints spread throughout the scene because there are so many different choices and responses you can choose from. If you pick the wrong one, BAM you lose. Start over. The long scenes, especially the ones with no checkpoints can be very, very frustrating because usually you have no idea what kind of response the person you are talking to is looking for, and so it simply turns into starting at the top of the list and working your way down until you find one that works.

With all that griping out of the way now, I have to say that the dialogue is absolutely hilarious! The game was written by one of the writers on the FOX show North Shore, Colleen McGuinness. It is a good thing they hired a decent writer, as that is this game’s only saving grace. As frustrating and not fun as the “gameplay” is, I still felt myself compelled to push on because I wanted to see what the characters had to say next. There are so many lines from this game that are so awesome I will never forget them for the rest of my life.