My Bridezilla
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| My Bridezilla

To be honest, any game where the main character asks, "Do you know how hard it is to splice iguana DNA with a human zygote?" during the tutorial is going to get my vote. How can anyone resist such deliciously surreal dialogue?

We've seen a great many of these script-based, multiple choice adventure games recently, and the competition for My Bridezilla is pretty stiff. But what Longtail Studios has astutely done is to step away from the typical dramatic character studies this genre is replete with and… well… takes the piss.

My Bridezilla features exactly the kind of character-driven story we'd expect from this kind of game – centring on the Maid of Honour's duty to ensure her best friend's over-emotional wedding goes off without a hitch – but mixes in a brilliantly caustic pulp sci-fi theme and a barrel full of sarcastic humour.

Elizabeth Olivia Greenberg is to wed Jake Winston Weiss in one week's time, and as her previous Maid of Honour has been otherwise incapacitated in a horrifically violent and funny accident, Lizzy has come to you (her sister) to take her place.

Unfortunately you're a scientist on the verge of successfully splicing the genes of iguanas and humans, and when your dear sister throws a wobbly in the lab she accidentally infects herself with the mutated DNA. As she continues to flip out due to your disinterest in the matrimonial affair, Elizabeth begins to mutate into a six-foot tall bloodthirsty monster!

Your duties now go beyond simply organising a wedding for a mawkish control freak. Lizzy must be kept as placid as possible until the wedding night so she doesn't turn into a big green fiend and savage the gathered congregation. At every turn, the disastrous wedding plans threaten to send Lizzy into a murdering, mutated frenzy, and only your diplomatic, sardonic tongue can keep things tranquil.

A selection of answers are available to you during each step of a conversation; either with Lizzy or some other antagonist menacing the big day. From the visuals to the gameplay and controls, there's almost nothing outstanding in this game that hasn't already been seen in the similar titles.

But what's especially wonderful about My Bridezilla is the sheer weight of quality comic answers available in each and every situation. Superior script writing is what makes the game unique.

The plot plays out like the finest and cheapest Troma film you can imagine, with the kind of robust, witty dialogue you'd normally expect to find in a Terry Pratchett novel. Biting sarcasm and droll retorts move the level of Lizzy's mutation to and from her vital humanity, and while it's a lot of fun winding up the other characters with some off-the-cuff one-liners, once she goes green and scaly the game is over.

Quite honestly there's nothing, on the surface, that makes My Bridezilla stand out from other character-driven pocket RPGs. But anyone even remotely interested in the genre is obliged to snatch up this riotous pastiche of such an overly serious type of game. And if you just fancy having a laugh and you've already completed Leisure Suit Larry twice this year, My Bridezilla is for you.

My Bridezilla

Anyone who enjoyed the likes of Blackadder, Men Behaving Badly or Game On will find the salacious dialogue of My Bridezilla quite priceless
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Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.