Scratch Girl is a lewd strip-’em-up with assorted hentai.
Adult Content?
(F, FxM) sex.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Playtime?
Forty-five minutes.
Patch Available?
As DLC.
Foreword: published December 6th, 2021
I received a free, prerelease copy of this game for review purposes — thanks DigitalDream! For the purposes of this article, I will only be discussing the patched game.
Gameplay: published December 6th, 2021 (2/5★)
Scratch Girl is like a blend of Asteroids and Qix. In Asteroids, you must fend off an endless team of aliens and space rocks; in Qix, you must “capture” portions of the playable area while managing enemies. Not only are you blasting asteroids in Scratch Girl, you must also “capture” the screen piece-by-piece! By hovering over unclaimed territory, you’ll gain “Progress” (while also revealing a lewd background!) Once the “Progress” bar is filled, it’s onto the next stage. You don’t have to worry about dying, but if you’re hit you’ll be forced to temporarily “give back” subsequently entered territory!
To progress onto the next level, you must uncover the entire background. There’s some leeway for missed pixels, but there needs to be more flexibility. If I didn’t work my way from each corner to the center, I found it easy to miss one or two percent completion (leading to a frustrating search for a proverbial needle in a hay stack).
Enemies periodically drop “coins”, lessoning the sting of the inevitable — but I wish I could use them to buy upgrades for my ship instead of entries in the “Gallery”. Overall, I wish there were more hazards and more power-ups. Once you’ve played the first level, you’ve seen everything the game has to offer. I want more guns!
Sexual Content: published December 6th, 2021 (3/5★)
Scratch Girl offers women of many backgrounds, including a cat-girl, a nun, and a mix of fantasy and sci-fi babes. Completing a level grants access to a multiple choice questionnaire; if you answer any questions wrong, you’ll have to try again from the beginning before you’re permitted to access unlocked content. Thankfully, these grossly unfun minigames don’t have anything the “Gallery” doesn’t already offer. From the “Gallery”, animations may be viewed without a hassle!
I loved the artwork and “passive” animations, but the sexual animation is weak. The interactivity is nothing more than clicking “play” on one of three “actions”. Annoyingly, none of the animations loop — if there’s anything you want to see, you’ll have to periodically click the “play” button every few seconds (or in the case of the “Gallery”, cycle between animations to reset the one you like). Once an animation has elapsed, you may click the screen to play a disappointing climax (signified using blurry “splat” icons!)
Story: published December 6th, 2021 (1/5★)
Each character (or as DigitalDream refers to them, “miss”) offers a few lines of dialogue (intended to quiz the player on their preferences), but there isn’t any meaningful character building or exposition.
Sound: published December 6th, 2021 (2/5★)
I grew weary of the stock theme played on the main-menu and “Gallery” screen. I made the mistake of allowing the application run in the background as I wrote this article; I resisted the urge to mute the game before I had a chance to sample the remainder of the audio. Unfortunately, the volume controls are total trash. Music, sound effects and voice acting are collectively rolled up into a single audio slider — I guess you have to hear the game DigitalDream‘s way or not at all! As stock as the soundtrack feels, I enjoyed the selection of battle music. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a challenge to hear them over the sound of your spaceship going “pew pew!” The voice acting is repetitive, but it doesn’t sound bad (then again, I can’t really vouch for acting I’m unable to translate).
Visuals: published December 6th, 2021 (2/5★)
Everything about this game feels stock. The sprites are a mix of art styles; between the low-poly asteroids, 2D space ships and childish “coins”, it’s clear DigitalDream pinched pennies using premade content. While I enjoy flashing lights, the in-game special effects need to be toned down (or at least adjustable) — there’s more special effects than hentai!
Speaking of hentai, I don’t understand why DigitalDream chose to crop the images for gameplay. I’d much rather be revealing bare tits than a blurry mugshot as I blow up asteroids! Also, the user-interface can’t be hidden. Not only is it a pet peeve of mine (regarding unlockable adult content), it makes it difficult to see portions of the screen that need to be “claimed” before reaching the next stages.
Verdict: published December 6th, 2021 (2.5/5★)
Scratch Girl needs updates. The gameplay is monotonous and the sexual animations need to be tweaked. If DigitalDream added more foes and power-ups, it’d be an okay game. It’s kind of fun blasting asteroids, and I can’t say “no” to hentai! There’s probably better games to spend your money on, but it wouldn’t take a lot to transform Scratch Girl into a short and sweet quickie. Keep a look out for updates, and don’t overspend.
