It's hard to imagine a game called Fantastic Boyfriends being anything less than brilliant

I haven't played too many mobile games since I bought my first real smartphone a few months ago, but I'm planning to buy this one.

Of course, how could I not when it's called Fantastic Boyfriends: Legends of Midearth?

Also, it features all kinds of hot, burly men (of the manga variety, admittedly, but I'll take what I can get) and its translation is being worked on by a very good friend of mine, Chic Pixel's Anne Lee.



As for what Fantastic Boyfriends is beyond being a mobile game stuffed with hunks, well, the gist is that it combines elements of the RPG and dating-sim genres.

Sadly, the latter aspect appears to be more PG-rated than X-rated, but that's how it goes when you want your game to make it onto the Apple and Android app stores.

If that's acceptable to you, and you'd like to know more about Fantastic Boyfriends and maybe even throw a bit of monetary support behind it, head over to its Indiegogo page.



The game's developers, Lifewonders, are looking to garner $20,000 by the time the above-mentioned fundraising campaign ends in 30 days.

A note for those of you who may be riding the fence (as to whether or not to hand over a few bucks Fantastic Boyfriends' makers): this particular Indiegogo effort is of the "fixed funding" sort, which means that if it fails to reach its goal, all money will be returned to contributors.

What do you say? Are any of you planning to back this sucker? Or maybe you've already done so?

Guess what? I'm (back) on Tumblr, too...

Because I apparently hate having any free time whatsoever, I recently decided to start making use of the tumblr--TheGayGamer, aka gaygamer.tumblr.com--I launched ages ago and then promptly dropped like a hot potato.

I'll be honest: at the moment, I'm mostly turning to it to help promote posts that are published here, but I'm also regularly favoriting and passing along others' posts that I find particularly interesting or that are in line with the kind of content I tend to produce.



Well, except for the not-safe-for-work stuff (that I favorite or pass along, not that I publish myself)--which you may want to watch out for if you aren't into bara and the like.

One more thing: if you're on tumblr, or if you follow any tumblrs you think I'd enjoy (NSFW or otherwise), let me know in the comments section below.

Introducing: Shall We Do It?

As a result of my recent "Suggestions?" post, I've decided to add a new, published-as-often-as-I-feel-like-it column to this blog's line-up.

If you can't quite tell from its title what it'll cover (and I can't really blame those of you who feel that way), here's the gist: every so often--likely every other week, but I can't promise I'll keep to that schedule--I'm going to publish a "Shall We Do It?" post that details, via blurbs of a reasonable length, my impressions of all (or at least most) of the games I'm currently playing.

I'm not entirely sure how I'll title these posts, although I have a feeling it'll be something along the lines of "Shall We Do It? (Attack of the Friday Monsters, Bravely Default demo and Zooo)."

Another possibility would be to give them headlines like, "Shall We Do It? (Week of Jan. 6, 2014)," but that seems just a bit too or sterile to me.

That said, what do all of you think (of this pair of title options, not of the general column idea)?

Oh, and in case any of you are curious, the name of this new column was inspired by the most famous line--"Yaranaika?" which translates to, "Shall we do it?"--to appear in Kuso Miso Technique, the bara manga from 1987 featuring Takakazu Abe (aka the handsome guy seen above, in my avatar here and on Twitter).

More bullets, more buff dudes, more ... butts?

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Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Sugar Shooter 2 edition)

Just so you know, I'm going to change things up a bit for this round of "Which Box Art is Better?" Rather than discuss the merits of the pieces of cover art produced for a single game released in various regions, today I want to discuss the merits of cover art produced for a pair of games released in a single region.

The pair of games we'll be dissecting today: Dudedle Studio's Sugar Shooter, which hit the streets in late 2010, and its sequel, Sugar Shooter 2, which is expected to make its way into gamers' hands (in Japan) any day now. (Awesome aside: Folks who buy the limited edition get this ass-tacular face towel.)

With that said, here's the art that graces the cover of the Japanese version of the first Sugar Shooter:

And here's the art that will greet folks who buy the Japanese version of Sugar Shooter 2:

Although I'm pretty fond of the former game's box art, I much prefer the imagery created for the soon-to-be-released (in Japan, at least) sequel. Sure, it's composition is a bit typical, but it's so colorful that it's not at all difficult for me to overlook it.

What do all of you think? Do you prefer one piece of Sugar Shooter cover art to the other?

See also: Previous 'Which Box Art is Better?' posts

Another day, another Sugar Shooter 2 demo

Did you download the Sugar Shooter 2 demo that I mentioned in this post early last week? If so, you may want to head back to the Dudedle Studio blog shortly, as a brand spanking new demo of this upcoming, bara-tastic, bullet-hell shmup was added to the site on Friday.



Said demo not only includes a number of bug fixes and other improvements, but it also includes (as far as I can tell) a second stage. So, download away--especially if you're at all interested in shooting the clothes off of a bevy of cartoonish bodybuilders.

A dungeon-crawling, turn-based, X-rated RPG aimed at gay guys, you say? Put me down for a dozen (or more) copies!

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Ten questions with one of the main dudes at Dudedle Studio

I had such a blast playing through Dudedle Studio's Sugar Shooter a few months back that shortly after I finished my review of it I reached out to Punipen, the studio's chief designer, programmer and scenario writer, in an attempt to get to know the guys behind this boss-rush, bullet-hell shmup that's aimed at the bara-loving set a bit better.

Thankfully, he wasn't at all turned off by my (completely honorable, I assure you) advances and graciously agreed to answer a handful of questions--I know only nine appear below, despite the promises of the headline above, but the first one originally was split into two--about the company's background, what prompted him and his colleagues to create the sexy Sugar Shooter and why they make gay games in general.

The Gay Gamer: Can you tell me a bit about Dudedle Studio's back- ground? When was the company founded, for instance? Also, why was it founded? What were your goals for the company?

Punipen: First of all, I think we're more of a studio or group of indie developers than a company. We started making games as a hobby, just for fun. And since we're all gay, we [decided we] would develop erotic games for gay people.

If you know about H-games, you'll see that there are literally tons of them on the market in Japan. Many of them are very good and were turned into animation afterwards, such as Air, Kanon, To Heart, etc.

Sadly, the gay audience is neglected [by the makers of these games]. If you're talking about gay games that feature manly men, they hardly exist. The only company that stands out [for making such games] in Japan right now is Underground Campaign, which is led by Senga Migiri-san.

When we checked [the availability of these kinds of games] outside of Japan, we found that the scenario wasn't so different. While there are Flash games that target gay people who prefer manly men, none of these are big games like the ones Underground Campaign has made. Also, there are many people who wish these kinds of games were available for English speakers.

So, you could say that we've been toying with the idea of making a gay game [for a worldwide audience] for a while.

We didn't actually start making one, though, until Takezamurai-san, the main artist for Sugar Shooter, tweeted me saying that he wished he could make a game. He's a great artist, and I've always been a big fan of his, so I was like, 'Why not?' I got in touch with him and that's when we started working on Sugar Shooter.

So, you could say that our group was founded on November 14, 2010--which is when Sugar Shooter was first released in Japan.

Get yer pipin' hot Sugar Shooter 2 demo here!

And when I say it's piping hot, I mean that literally--as in, it's freshly released--and figuratively--as in, well, it features some smokin' content, just like the first Sugar Shooter.

I've only played the Sugar Shooter 2 demo for a few minutes this far, but already I can tell it's going to be just as fun as--if not more fun than--its fabulously gay predecessor.

One thing that's certain at this point: Sugar Shooter 2 will have a lot more options--such as a bevy of difficulty settings and selectable "partners"--than Dudedle Studio's original effort.

To see what the Japanese version of this boss-rush, bullet-hell shmup for bara lovers looks like in action, check out this trailer:



If you'd rather experience it firsthand, download the one-stage demo of the game from the Dudedle Studio blog.

It appears Sugar Shooter 2 will be playable on both Macs and Windows-based PCs, by the way--something that couldn't be said about the series' initial installment.

Finally, for more information on the first Sugar Shooter, read these previous posts: 'A somewhat gay review of Sugar Shooter (PC)' and 'I think it's about time I played a bullet-hell shmup starring beefy boys in underwear'

The question is: Will I enjoy blowing the underwear off of the bosses in the second Sugar Shooter as much as I enjoyed doing so in the first?

Yep, that's right: Everybody's favorite--or at least it was my favorite--bara-flavored, boss-rush, bullet-hell shmup, Sugar Shooter, will soon get a sequel. Rejoice!

Here's a brief glimpse of a still-in-the-works version of Sugar Shooter II, for those of you who are interested:



Well, that certainly looks like Sugar Shooter, doesn't it--sans the first game's buff (and in-the-buff) baddies, of course. I'm guessing the guys at Dudedle Studio will be adding them shortly.

See also: 'A somewhat gay review of Sugar Shooter (PC)'

A somewhat gay review of Sugar Shooter (PC)

This downloadable (for Windows-enabled PCs) title, developed by the folks at Dudedle Studio, is/was my first run-in with a bullet-hell shoot 'em up, and you know what? I enjoyed it so much that I'm eagerly awaiting my second such experience. Granted, Sugar Shooter isn't a run-of-the-mill bullet-hell shoot 'em up (or shmup, as they're often called)--rather, it's a boss-rush, bullet-hell shmup that's squarely aimed at the bara-loving set.

To those of you scratching your heads at any or all of the aforementioned "b" words (bara, boss-rush and bullet-hell), hopefully the following infor- mation will straighten things out: Sugar Shooter stars a beefy, gay prince named Satan (hmmm), who is tasked with protecting his precious Sugar Kingdom from a quartet of similarly studly baddies. (They're where the bara, or "Men's Love," aspect of the game comes into play, by the way.)



One by one, these baddies--backed by a bombastic, guitar-laden soundtrack and led by a bloke named Lord Sugarless--assault Satan with wave after wave of beautiful bullets. (Hence the genre's name: bullet-hell.) Satan isn't powerless against said bullets thanks to his "Dessert Ring" (hmmm again), which transforms oncoming projectiles into candy and increases the prince's "Sugar Level." Increasing the prince's Sugar Level accomplishes two things: 1) It enhances his base attack and 2) It allows him to perform a "Sugar Burst," which not only destroys everything within a certain distance of the prince but destroys his opponent's armor, too. That's important because you have to destroy an opponent's armor before defeat- ing them in order to see the best (i.e., most X-rated) ending scenes.

All of this is controlled with the left button on your mouse, by the way. Click it once to unleash Satan's auto-firing "Chocolate Gun" (hmmm for a third time) and click it again to stop attacking and start using his "Dessert Ring." You also click, hold and then release your mouse's left button to enter "Sugar Rush" mode, and then click it one last time to use Satan's "Sugar Burst." It feels a little odd at first if you're used to playing shoot 'em ups with a directional pad and buttons, but it quickly becomes second nature.



Don't worry if all of the above sounds annoyingly confusing or convoluted; in action, it's surprisingly simple to understand. It's not so simple to master, though--as evidenced by the fact that it took me a good 20 tries to topple the fourth and final boss (Lord Sugarless) on the game's easiest setting.

I don't share that fairly embarrassing tidbit to scare folks away from giving Sugar Shooter a try. On the contrary, I think gaymers who enjoy shoot 'em ups--bullet-hell or otherwise--and have $14.99 to blow will get a kick out of this Dudedle Studio-developed title.

See also: Other 'somewhat gay' reviews

I think it's about time I played a bullet-hell shmup starring beefy boys in underwear (and, no, I'm not talking about Cho Aniki)

One of the reasons I'm not talking about the infamous Cho Aniki or any of its sequels in the headline above is that none of those Masaya-developed games are bullet-hell shoot 'em ups (or shmups). Another reason: Although Cho Aniki and its ilk feature plenty of beefy boys, none of them, as far as I'm aware (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), feature beefy boys who gradually lose their clothing as they're barraged by enemy bullets.

So, which game am I talking about in the headline above (and in this post)? Why, I'm talking about Sugar Shooter, a shareware PC game developed by the folks at Dudedle Studios.



Just in case "bullet-hell shmup featuring beefy boys in underwear" isn't detailed enough for you, here's the developer's official description of the game: "Sugar Shooter is an erotic shoot’em up game! Taking control of Satan-kun, the prince of the Sweet Kingdom and protect your world from being eaten by the invaders. Beat them and make them pay for they’ve done to your kingdom!"

If none of the above--including that strangely alluring screenshot--makes a lick of sense to you, maybe you should watch the following trailer for the game. (Warning: Neither character winds up naked at the end of the video.)



For more information on Sugar Shooter or any of Dudedle Studio's other games--one of which is a sequel to Sugar Shooter--check out the company's website at dudedlestudio.com.

(Via the completely-not-safe-for-work baragamer.com)