Pick Me Pick Me is an AI-powered competitive dating game between two players in hopes of getting the heart of the date-to-be! Read our review of its early-access build to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Everything We Know About Pick Me Pick Me
Pick Me Pick Me Story Plot
Pick Me Pick Me does not have a central story plot, but this competitive AI-powered PvP dating game pits two romance-seeking players against each other in a duel of words and charm. Choose directly or randomly pick between 23 (and counting) love seekers to try and woo their hearts away—before your opponent does!
Pick Me Pick Me Gameplay
The gameplay revolves around the concept of speed dating—in a more competitive and head-to-head approach. Players compete with a friend to go all-out in speed competitive dating with an AI character, each with their own type of personality. They can say whatever they want to the eligible bachelor or bachelorette, such as charming pick-up lines, compliments, witty replies, or even defaming the opponent. Anything goes! The character takes turns in interacting with either player depending on the context of the conversation.
To add a little spice and unpredictability to the game, players can make use of skill cards to throw off their rival in the most unexpected ways. These abilities range from "accidental" accidents, changing the entire meaning of their sentence, stealing their turns, or forcing them to use a certain word.
After a number of turns back and forth, the character will declare one of the players as their date at the end of it all, deeming them as the victor. Win or lose, players will also receive a certain amount of coins for purchasing new clothing.
Pick Me Pick Me Release Date
Pick Me Pick Me is now available to be wishlisted on Steam, with its official Early Access release date on the platform is still currently unknown. However, interested players can head to the game’s official website to purchase an Early Access copy for themselves and a friend for $19.99.
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Pick Me Pick Me Review [Early Access]
Competitive Dating Made Fun
Pick Me Pick Me’s premise is simple; chat up an AI character and get them to love you. That sounds like a pretty standard goal in dating sims, a genre that I am more than familiar with, but this game takes it up a notch by making it a real-time competition. Through several rounds of chatting, players compete against another player (friend, family, or whoever you roped into playing with you—also shoutout to Jason for helping me try it out!) in an attempt to snag the AI character’s heart. However, you’re not just charming your way through the power of words—you can even make use of skill cards (or er, dirty tactics) to make your opponent fumble and look less date-able in front of the AI character.
Developers Optillusion shared on Steam that the gameplay was derived from the Japanese mixer parties, a social gathering where young men and women meet together as a group with the intention of looking for potential romantic interests. Now, I highly doubt you need to go as all out and aggressive as you do in-game in a real life mixer, but the concept made much more sense when I understood what its inspiration was.
Hilarious And Fun For A Party Game
It honestly sounds a little strange on the tin—I was surely confused the first time I saw the game—but once you get to playing it, it’s quite enjoyable and can be challenging too. After all, you have at most 40 seconds to type out a good response unless you’re good at thinking of witty things on the fly (I most certainly am not as I screwed up more times than I could count). Of course, you can also just drop the charming responses—you can even be a jerk and belittle your rival to give yourself the upper hand.
Another fun feature present in the game was the option to dress yourself up in a variety of different styles. You can present yourself as a "very demure, very mindful" kind of guy or gal with the simplest of accessories, or turn it up all the way with fancier and more flamboyant clothing—there’s even a bear head and a gorilla head to wear, should you prefer that.
I can see this being played in a group setting as well once local PVP mode is implemented (the website does show that this is an expected feature), making for an entertaining get-together. Turn the response time to a measly 20 seconds and watch the sparks fly as people scramble to get their replies straight to impress the AI waifu or husbando. You can even turn it into a group game and see at the end which group manages to sweep them off their feet first!
Well-Responsive and Smooth AI Characters
The game’s dazzling dates-to-be are quite pleasant to interact with as well, with their own likes, dislikes, and personality types. In our playthroughs, we met with the intellectual radio host Hazel, followed by rocker gal Stella, and finally the knightly Rodrigo—and that’s only three out of 23 (as of writing) characters to try and romance. With all these different types of characters combined with the unpredictability of the players’ responses, no one playthrough will be exactly the same as the last.
While AI may have this stereotype of being robotic and boring, the character AI is actually responsive and feels like it works like a charm. They take the responses well, and they actually make for great conversation. It’s both intriguing and eerie at the same time, knowing that this is an AI program talking back to me.
I like that they also comment on your outfit, especially if you’re wearing something a little more extravagant. For example, I wore a cowboy costume reminiscent of Toy Story’s Woody, and the characters took notice of it immediately. Of course, I had to commit to the bit, and it made for a hilarious exchange.
Custom Characters Are A Thing
While I wasn’t able to dabble into it because my copy of the game did not have the option to do so, there is also the Workshop feature where players can even make their own custom characters right in-game! These custom creations can also be shared and downloaded by other players to try. My selection was small due to my copy of the game being the playtest version, but nevertheless I was able to get access to popular anime characters Frieren and Rem, as well as a custom bear-person named Norman.
Unfortunately, I was not able to try the character creator out myself, but just having that option of creating your own dream romantic interest and decking it out in competitive dating duels to grab their attention is a plus. The sky’s the limit here, especially for those with a penchant for creativity!
Still Clunky Around The Edges
Since it’s in Early Access, it’s inevitable that not everything is working as well as it was intended to be. For instance, the Reverse Reply cards that supposedly completely flip the meaning of your response to something more rude or not appealing at all to the character do not work as great as it should—it didn’t turn my opponent’s reply as something rude, and instead the character played well with it and liked their "spunk" instead.
However, it is good to note that the characters’ responses are all done through AI technology, which in itself is still finicky in some places. I was also called a guy more than once by the character even if I specified that I was a female in the options, which can take away from the slight immersion. Perhaps it was because I was dressed up like a cowboy and the character called me a cowboy in the very first round, but that could use some fine-tuning.
The game would also benefit in having some sort of turn counter somewhere in the UI, because sometimes your skill cards end up not being used because the game already ended. There’s also no indicator in the gameplay proper that tells you when the entire playthrough is about to end, and you’ll just be surprised when the AI character starts saying their ending spiel.
Still Rough, But Delivers A Fun Competitive Experience
Pick Me Pick Me delivers a fun experience for two players or even a group given its competitive dating style of gameplay. The AI characters are built rather well despite some lapses and are enjoyable to interact with, providing unique experiences that are not one and the same as the other. While there are some rough edges regarding how skill cards work and the AI not understanding some replies as well as it should be, the game provides hours of gameplay that doesn’t get stale easily.
For a running price of $19.99 for two players at a buy one and get one free promo, it’s a solid purchase that can keep players entertained for quite some time.
Game8 Reviews
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Pick Me Pick Me Product Information
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| Title | Pick Me Pick Me |
|---|---|
| Release Date | TBA |
| Developer | Optillusion |
| Publisher | Optillusion |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Simulation, Indie, Dating Sim |
| Number of Players | 2 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Pick Me Pick Me Official Website |
