Time for round three! As well as our third couple…
Guy & Illya did not appear to have much chemistry between them, whereas Biff & Mary got along splendidly, with love apparently in the air! Till Mary got conked in the head with a huge piece of wood by one of the bad guys (I know, I know, but what else could I say instead?). So now let’s take a look at Gus, who is no fatty but instead a buff, shiftless rocker dude that lets off a Misfits-fanboy vibe, and Rosie, the “slutty” girl of the cast.
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Their first date was highlighted by a number of animal sighting, including a gorilla!
And a huge cobra.
Things ended on a rather positive note it would seem…
Holy shit! All hearts filled, plus Gus nabbed the hidden diamond, a perfect score!
Not only that, but he was able to make three sandwiches, one of each kind: one hamburger, one pork roll sandwich (each topped with egg), and a chicken sandwich. PLUS he got 7 out of 8 cherries, Rosie’s fruit of choice, as well as all of the rest, and even a diamond ring somewhere along the line. Most impressive. Two groups of bonus bells were missed, but it don’t matter…
… Cuz Gus is TOTALLY gonna get some! She is so hot for him, you can just tell. But the dude is playing it cool and acting all disinterested. Good. It’s best to let the girl think that you don’t give a shit…
Even the game’s mascot is most certain that there’s gonna be some fuckin’ going on soon!
Time for a few highlight from date two. Here we have shots from that level’s many set pieces, in which your cart hits a bunch of others that are stationary and blocking the way, which sends them all of the place, super fast, like a bunch of balls on a pool table…
… and you have to duck at the right moments to avoid losing your block…
Hey, more critters!
Onto date three; here’s a sequence in which you go across a bridge that’s wildly swinging back and forth…
Not only does one have to deal with crazy, tree trunk-swinging bad guys…
… but bombs bring thrown as well, which requires constant speed changes, to either avoid explosions behind you, or up ahead…
Though at a certain point, one of the bad men ends up on a track, and runs away super fast, a la Benny Hill. I’m pretty sure most folks will not be able to tell from the shot, but the track ends when the pier runs out, and then you bounce off the heads of alligators’ till you reach land…
Hidden in the tall brush….
… is an cave that leads to a secret, wacky skeleton based area…
It’s also happens to be where you will find the hidden diamond for that stage…
Date three went relatively well. The girl got a bit shook up, though as you can tell, she’s got other stuff on her mind…
BTW, here’s what she looks like when you f’ up. She become a royal bitch! Surprise.
The fourth level takes primarily inside a vast, man-made complex that I’m assuming is the home-base for the game’s evil folks….
There’s many parts where you come to a halt and go up or down several levels…
Oh, and there’s also a conveyor belt, with your ground going the other way, forcing you to pump double-time. Plus there’s even more people wanting to knock your block off…
A lot of times you’re off the tracks, flying all over the place…
Near the end point, you get another quick cinema, showing the bosses watching on, as they stand perched on some scaffolding…
… that you happen to run straight into and knock over…
Time for the fifth stage, aka the final date! And this one takes place in the evening, among ice-capped mountains, and falling snowflakes, which is rather romantic. Plus you got goofy looking snowmen adorning the countryside…
There’s still plenty of stuff to worry about, like huge, menacing snowballs…
… as well as sudden drops…
Here’s we have a wacky corkscrew…
And some parts of the track are covered in ice, which has you slipping and sliding all over the place, bouncing between the mountain side and a fence. Because there are openings, you have to be careful not to fall down the cliff side…
There’s also no shortage of animal life either; here we have rabbit perched on-top of a low hanging log (which will also sour the mood if you don’t duck in time)…
And at a certain point what looks like a polar bear decides to follow along on a sled…
Hey, it’s a party!
The fun does not last for long…
… Because soon we into a cave for another cut scene….
Yup, the bad guys are back, and they are pissed, as well as packing heat. Thus we have the long awaited final boss battle! As you ride across a lava-filled landscape, with the track crumbling behind you, the no-good-for-nothings are also riding along, and all over the place, shooting huge bullets that have menacing faces on them, that are COMPLETE rip-offs of Bullet Bills from the Super Mario Universe, as if you couldn’t tell already….
There’s really not much you can do other than duck, and wait it out…
Eventually, the bad guys’ cart crashing into the lava and its curtains for them. And once they’re out of the way, you cross the finish line, and it’s the end of a magical adventure…
… Unfortunately, because the last sequence is so tricky (despite my familiarity with the game, I am still by no-means an expert Love Love Mine player, though it’s mostly because of the wonky controls, I swear to you), I died a few times, which led to me loosing all the hearts I had build up and protected throughout the game. Pretty lame indeed. Maybe that’s why she isn’t jumping my bones at the very end.
But after their exchange, it switches to CGi stills.
Since I don’t understand Japanese, I’m ultimately in the dark, but from what I can sense, there isn’t much of a happy ending; the boy and girl does not ride off into the sunset. Instead, you get to see what happen to the kids later down the road in life; I’ve beaten the game several times with different characters, and in different combinations, and its always the same. You get a quick cut away to each kid, now an adult, in their adult lives, and they each seem a bit solemn, even lonely, as if they’re recounting “that special time, with that special person, that one wacky summer”.
Perhaps if I had finished the game with the girl completely in love with me, I would have gotten a happy ending, but considering all the possible combinations if you had a perfect score with each boy and each girl together, I’m willing to bet that the clearly meager budget would not allow for so many extra assets. But hey, at least you get this piece of “thanks for playing!” artwork before the credits roll…
… It should be noted that hardly any people are listed in the credits. Which makes sense; if there were a lot, then that would be kinda sad. It would have been nice to know only one guy made this game, but still, even after this blow-by-blow, I still feel this game has a certain degree of mystique.
So that’s it! Finally, the most hidden and obscure gem in my gaming collection, one that I’ve spoken of for literally years, and which most people thought I was making up, exposed for the whole world to see at last. It’s a shame that 99.9% of the world will never be able to experience this rather charming little game. The bottom line is, despite it being seemingly WACKY JAPPY for the sake of being WACKY JAPPY, it’s a not so bad playing game. It’s actually a lot of fun! It’s a bit shallow, and obviously rough around the edges, but ultimately, it has enough charm and punk to even things out. But more so, Love Love Mine feels like some wacky experiment; my best guess is that someone, perhaps a record producer working at Scitron & Art that went “Hey, I’m tired of putting out video game soundtracks. I got one of my own!”, went ahead and got a small sum of money and a few eager to flex their skills game makers, and made a game… and never spoke of it ever again.
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UPDATE: BTW, those who wish they could give Love Love Mine, well, here’s your chance! Big thanks to Dave for making it happen.
