More than a sci-fi visual novel, Bionic Heart, is an interactive anime inspired movie with you controlling the plot and eventually the ending. The year is 2099 AD and it is raining in London. This is not an unusual scenario for London but now it rains every day in this modernistic, space age city with high rises spiraling towards the dark skies. The entire planet is wrapped in this rain soaked atmosphere. Global warnings so prevalent today were ignored due to greed and fighting so the earth became unstable with violent weather patterns (seen today with the current unbalanced meteorological conditions). The only lights in the city are artificial with solar panels placed around the planet for energy. A dark and murky beginning for an action-packed thriller involving humans and robotics to unmask many mysteries surrounding this story.

The hero or main character is Luke Black, 35, a bio-informatics expert and manager at Nanotech, a large corporate organization in the production of nanotechnology. There are many scenarios in this play from Black’s love life to his profession, his friendship with his co-worker and his involvement with a robot called Tanya. There are other characters who make their presence known from time to time in order to tie this suspenseful, futuristic tale of corporate espionage or is it? There are so many unanswered questions overshadowing this narrative that it’ll take hours to unravel and discover all the nuances of each conversation.

There is a holomap you can use to visit different locations in London and uncover information from either humans or robots you encounter or just get data from different objects in a place. Some conversations will direct you to act a certain way or go to a different site, but a lot of the game depends on your choices.

Bionic Heart gets you involved almost immediately clicking on conversations and choosing different options to take. This play is completely foreign to anything I have played. Emerald City Confidential Mac sim game comes closest to this play. ECC also has great graphics, but is more like a cartoon feature while Bionic Heart is more like a full-length movie. Maybe someone will one day make a movie out of this game since everything is already here in this play. The voices in the scenes are professional and Luke Black’s voice sounds like the popular actor, Patrick Warburton of the recent TV hit show Rules of Engagement and the cartoon movie, The Incredibles. After finishing the intensive demo, you feel like you are left hanging and must complete the game to find all the answers to Luke’s complicated and soon to be troubled life. Will he marry his girlfriend, Helen Hughes? Is there anything between his best friend, Tom Sparks, and Helen? Who and what is Tanya and who is she hiding from? What is the connection between Richard Meier IV and Nanotech? Why did Tanya seek Luke out? Find all the answers playing Bionic Heart.

This is an adult rated theme with its sexual innuendos and harsh language. The game does give a warning at the beginning of the play. It states it is for kids 14 and up. Maybe it’s just me but I think it is for kids 17 or more years so you need to make your own decisions to allow kids to play this game. The only thing I didn’t like about this play is the constant clicking back and forth from one room to another (going from the bedroom to bathroom to kitchen and back) trying to find answers. Eventually you get to where you need to be and the game proceeds to the next scene.

The great draw to Bionic Heart is the suspense and thriller of this story and the fantastic anime-like artwork with interesting animation of a dark, foreboding future of planet earth done in by global warming gone haywire. Take a look into the future and discover answers to Luke Black’s dilemma.

Features of Bionic Heart:
-24 Different Endings
-High Replay Factor
-Interact with Humans, Robots, Objects and Environments

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Little Shop of Horrors all over again! Killer plants have attacked the all girl school and are creating fear and havoc among the students and teachers. However, you and the science club girls are unfazed and boldly counterattack these people eaters.

You are the president of the science club about to meet after school for its weekly session. Your specialty is psychology, and therefore, you wear a mask for your project? You like pizza, horses and modern art. This is the profile they assign to you. You must select the level of difficulty from elementary (relaxed), standard (normal), and graduate (challenge) for your play. Jennifer the VP of the club enters the classroom. She is a biology person and is quite bossy. She will spew science facts freely while assisting you. You both hear an ear-piercing scream coming from outside the building. Both you and Jennifer run to the window on the 5th floor and see an amazing and frightening sight. The school teachers are being attacked by killer plants (Jennifer disputes they are plants but looks like plants to a psych person). We both head out to help save them, but are stopped by the intruders. Throughout the building you encounter these savage aliens, and you must battle them room by room and floor by floor in order to survive.

The play is to confront these plants in each site and exchange blows with them. You choose different attacks or flee in order to beat these things. You can punch, defend, item, use special attributes or flee from your enemies. The bad guys are hurt or they can move avoiding your assaults. As you search along the classrooms the killer plants increase or do they? They will use holograms to confuse you and dodge your punches. In each battle, depending on how well you do, you and your team will gain experience. As the aliens increase so do your team. More girls will join you in your battles against these plants. However, the girls in the back row will not be able to combat until you swap them out with the ones in the front row.

Science Girls! is a simple to learn, entertaining Mac RPG play for everyone. It’s easy enough for beginners to pick up quickly, and it also is a great game for seasoned players at the higher more difficult levels. The anime-style artwork is excellent and similar to Cute Knight. The dialogue however is funny and amusing especially if you understand Japanese. All that is missing from Science Girls is the song “Don’t Feed the Plants” or Seymour singing “Feed Me” from The Little Shop of Horrors.

Features of Science Girls!:
-3 Difficulty Levels
-Hypnotize Your Enemies
-Science Girls to the Rescue!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars