Tokimeki Memorial is a dating sim by Konami and the first game in the Tokimeki Memorial series.
The first game in the series is particularly notable for its "bomb" feature, where neglected, infrequently-dated girls would eventually become angry and gossip to their friends, severely reducing love meters across the board. In the middle of the game, when the number of known girls was high, these "bombs" became the primary concern of the player, forcing careful planning and strategies like round-robin dating. Although the feature was still present in the later games, it was considerably reduced in importance and the difficulty in avoiding it.
Tokimeki Memorial was first released for the PC Engine on May 27, 1994. It was remade as Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You on the PlayStation (1995), Sega Saturn (1996) and PC (1997) with a new opening video, improved graphics and sound, and new minigames.
CHARACTERS:
- Shiori Fujisaki : Voiced by: Mami Kingetsu
The player's childhood friend. Once you two were really good friends, but you seemed to have drifted apart. Both intelligent and beautiful, Shiori is cute and popular. To win her heart, the player needs very good stats all-around. She is never seen without her trademark yellow headband. Shiori is one of the first three phone numbers the player obtains early in the game.
- Saki Nijino: Voiced by: Sachiko Sugawara
Manager of the school's soccer/baseball team (it varies).
- Ayako Katagiri: Voiced by: Masayo Kawaguchi
An art student who has a habit of using English in everyday speech. She is deathly afraid of water.
- Yuko Asahina: Voiced by: Yoko Teppouzuka
A cheerful girl who's very active and sociable. She does poorly in school, though. She is often seen with her childhood friend, Yoshio Saotome.
- Yukari Koshiki: Voiced by: Ayako Kurosaki
A polite, soft-spoken girl who's the daughter of a wealthy family.
- Mio Kisaragi: Voiced by: Akiko Sekine
A shy librarian almost never seen without her glasses on.
- Yuina Himoo: Voiced by: Tomoko Naka
A mad scientist of sorts of the school. She is terrified of koalas.
- Mira Kagami: Voiced by: Rei Igarashi
A beautiful girl with the looks of a model and a fan club, though she is conceited and hard to talk to.
- Nozomi Kiyokawa: Voiced by: Ayako Sasaki
A tomboyish girl who loves swimming, as well as flowers.
- Megumi Mikihara: Voiced by: Mikiko Kurihara
Shiori's best friend. She is very shy and soft-spoken.
- Yumi Saotome: Voiced by: YOSHIKIKURIN
Yoshio's little sister, Yumi is energetic and playful. She enters Kirameki High during the player's second year.
- Miharu Tatebayashi: Voiced by: Shiho Kikuchi
A hidden girl who seen now and again, but can't officially date in the game. She loves koalas quite a bit.
- Yoshio Saotome: Voiced by: Yuji Ueda
Often seen around school usually with other girls, Yoshio provides the player with information on the available girls, including their phone numbers, blood type, and various things they like earning him the nickname "Info Otaku". Yoshio's phone number is one of the three phone numbers you receive in the beginning of the game. If certain conditions are met, Yoshio will become a rival to the player at the end of the third year, attempting to win the heart of one of the girls. The girl he ends up with are limited only to those the player has met and will depend on the player's own success with the girl he has chosen; however, he does not directly fight for any girl the player has chosen. In the spin-off gameTokimeki no Houkago ~Ne Quiz Shiyo~, Yoshio is a winnable character although the player does not actually end up with him; instead, the player and Yoshio make a pact to both find girlfriends. This makes him the only male character (prior to Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, in which the main objective to end up with are male characters) where the main character can end up with him.
- Rei Ijuin: Voiced by: Narumi Tsunoda
The most popular guy in the school, Rei is the oldest child of a rich and powerful family who makes countless products. However, he has a huge secret he can't reveal to anyone. His little sister, Mei, is a datable girl in Tokimeki Memorial 2. Rei's phone number is one of the first three numbers the player obtains early in the game.
TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL TAISEN TOKKAEDAMA:
Like its predecessor, Puzzle Dama, is based on an already existing game engine with no noticeable changes in gameplay. As rows of balls are slowly pushed up from the bottom of the screen you move your cursor around. Picking up a ball from under the cursor, you can then move it to another point on the screen and switch it with a ball at that location or release it in an empty space, to drop down onto the puzzle. If at any time three or more balls of the same color become adjacent, they will disappear, allowing balls above them to fall down and possibly start a chain reaction.
The game graphics are identical to the arcade Tokkae Dama. To customize the game for theTokimeki Memorial environment, the backgrounds have been changed to pictures of the various TokiMemo girls. Unfortunately most of the artwork is rather uninspired. The body proportions and poses all appear identical across the spectrum of girls, leading to some rather freakish looks when the characters are pasted onto the bodies. The ending sequences are fairly good though, and the SD characters shown while the credits roll are extremely good.
Thankfully the game is fairly playable. The various modes give a wide degree of challenge, although you need a win on either Tokimeki mode or second/third year (difficulty) of the Kirameki mode to get an ending. One feature which players of Puzzle Dama will definitely appreciate is that the CPU does not appear to cheat during the final stage.
GAMEPLAY:
Tokkaedama has a 6x12 (base by height) playing field. If all of your columns (i.e. your entire playfield, not just one particular column) become filled, you will lose. There are two types of pieces on the board: ko-damas (small, square pieces) and o-damas (large, round pieces) ("tama/dama" ~= "ball"). You get to move a special piece around the board called a hane-dama (it looks like a winged circle), in which you can hold one ko-dama or o-dama at a time. The hane-dama can switch the piece it's holding with the piece it's currently hovering over ("tokkae" ~= "switch/give&take"), drop the piece it's holding if the space it's over is empty, or grab a piece from the board if the hane-dama is empty.
If three or more o-damas of the same color (there are five colors) are made to touch each other (vertical or horizontal adjacency counts as "touching"; diagonals don't count), they will disappear. Any ko-dama next to (once again, diagonals don't count) an o-dama that disappears will become an o-dama. Setting off chain reactions (chains) (one o-dama set disappears, triggering another set to disappear, etc...) will send ko-damas over to your's opponent's board in a manner determined by your character's attack-pattern.
The playfield will slowly (it gets faster as time progresses) inch its way upwards, revealing new pieces (you can even manually push it up a bit if you're in need of a particular piece), row by row...
Attack mode:
When you complete any chain of size 2 or larger, you will accumulate ko-damas that will clutter up your opponent's board (# of rows ~= Chain # - 1), in a manner according to your character's attack-pattern. Note that some attack-patterns will fall upon your opponent's board from the top, whereas some will push his/her board up from the bottom. Of the basic attack-pattern types, here are my rankings on which are better and which are worse (imho!), in descending order of effectiveness:
horizontal, from top
vertical, from bottom
horizontal, from bottom
vertical, from top
GAME MODES:
1 Player:
- Tokimeki Mode (story mode, 6 levels)
- Kirameki Mode (arcade mode, 9 levels)
- Hirameki Mode (puzzle mode, 99 levels)...
2 Players
Manufacturer's description:
Renewal in the character of "Tokimeki Memorial" a love simulation "red herring taken against" the popular puzzle game in the arcade. Rules replace the position of the ball on the field, just go off side by side three or more balls of the same color. Note also that fan, try turning the large chain in three modes: stand-in fans can also enjoy taking time.
Features:
- First person perspective
- 2D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- Romance, Dating & Anime themes.
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