Other times, you’ll be thrust into small mini-games to determine just what happens. At decision points-do you want to propose a date at the mall, a dinner, or a movie?-you’ll simply tap your choice. You’re mostly presented with (well-drawn) static screens, where any animation is limited to the dialogue bubbles that appear. The gameplay itself is clever, but simple. Before he got locked up.” Overly dramatic moments skew towards the maudlin, with your love interest admitting her fear of water, or the bullying quarterback confiding about his brother’s death in a drunk driving accident. Plotting to steal back some stolen property, a student says: “‘Fight fire with fire and theft with theft,’ my old man always said. Surviving High School works best when it skews comedic: Your decision to take biology reminds the creepy guidance counselor that her biological clock is ticking, and she bemoans her ex’s restraining order. Fortunately, the stories are well-written albeit a little cheesy with their mix of high school drama and angst. I played through several episodes.Įach story is told through copious amounts of dialogue you’ll tap incessantly to get through it before you hit various interaction points. Those updates are free, but if you want to go back and play episodes you’ve missed “on demand,” you’ll have to pony up $1 for each one within the app. But regardless of Surviving High School’s seemingly intended demographic, I’m here to tell you-this is one fun, addictive game.Įach week, EA releases a new “episode”-the storyline that the game will focus on. You’re faced with challenges like finding the right pickup lines, debating whether to cut class to get popular at the expense of your academics, and playing wingman so your buddies can score. Let’s be clear: This is a game geared toward the tween and teenage crowd. Smooth Operator: Thanks to the wizards at EA Games, yes, you have plenty of clever lines to choose from when wooing classmates in Surviving High School. In the game, you star as a high schooler of your own creation, and you determine your social status and overall life successes based on the decisions you make. The DSiWare version of the game does not feature downloadable content.Surviving High School, a $3 app from EA Games, draws inspiration from perhaps the greatest literary works of our time: The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series. These are referred to as 'Mega Packs' by the game, and they offer longer gameplay to the player in comparison to the episodes. The game also offers premium content, which is either more character focused or extends more on the player's avatar storyline. The DLC is presented as a sit-com, as the player follows the students of Centerscore High in a episode format. The latest episode is free, with past episodes also downloadable for a small fee as on-demand. Downloadable Content Like any good high school stories, young break-ups are a thing in Surviving High School.ĭownloadable content is updated weekly, usually featuring the newest episode of the story of Surviving High School. If the player gets all the right decisions within an episode, he or she is treated to a bonus scene after the episode has ended. The downloadable episodes also are much more linear compared to the avatar storyline as the story follows down a set-path, with choices usually boiling down to the 'right' decision and the 'wrong' decision. However, the player will control the different characters that exist within the world of Centerscore High. Whilst featuring mostly the same characters and personalties, the story featuring the player as a avatar and downloadable episodes are independent in the sense that the player's avatar does not exist within the fiction of the downloadable episodes. However, the player can make choices which can affect the game, and also features mini-games, which is incorporated into the game. The game is primarily touch-based on the iPhone version and DSi versions, and use the key-pad on mobile versions, and gameplay is very similar like other games of the visual novel genre.
#SURVIVING HIGHSCHOOL APP FREE#
This mode is presented like a sit-com, with free downloadable content that is updated weekly for the mobile version and the iPhone version, as it follows these characters. The player can play two different modes, one as the player as an avatar who has just joined Centerscore High, or another revolving around the students of Centerscore High. Surviving High School is a text-based game set in a contemporary high school, named Centerscore High.