Nintendo 3DS Dating Sim Will Recognize You

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Dating sims are a semi-popular genre in Japan that have made no impact here in the Western world. Of course, the dating genre will spread to the Nintendo 3DS when that device comes out next year, and Konami is already letting out some details about their game, “Project Loveplus”, which will use the 3DS’ front-facing camera to recognize who is playing the game.

Japanese gaming outlet Famitsu is calling the feature a ‘boyfriend lock’. If somebody else picks up your 3DS and copy of ‘Love Plus’ and tries to play with it, your virtual girlfriend will act confused and ask “Who are you?” and other things. It’s supposed to make the bond between you and your virtual girlfriend stronger and make you feel a little better that your bros aren’t getting some time in with your virtual girlfriend when you’re not around.

The dating genre saw a 83% increase in sales in the year 2009, according to Siliconera. That was due to the popularity of Konami’s Love Plus game, and ‘Project Loveplus’ will be the 3DS version of that game. So, it’s basically like the Madden NFL 2012 of the dating genre. Okay, great.

Facial recognition software is sort of hit-or-miss with these cheap front-facing VGA cameras. There have been stories of HP laptops not being able to detect African-American people or whatnot. So, I hope Project Loveplus is sort of generous in this regard. I’d hate to have somebody open up their 3DS only to have their virtual girlfriend get a case of cataracts and not be able to tell who you are.