This is a hint/review file for the H anime game "Light Up" distributed by JAST USA, and sold by J-List and possibly others. It is apparently a "dojin" or dojinshi (amateur/unauthorized anime) production by an artist or circle called Zeph. This simple game of "rock paper scissors" (or "jan ken pon") is in English, Italian and Spanish with Japanese voice. It should work on both the PC and Mac; I played the PC version in English. It's basically strip Rock-Paper-Scissors, but with a few minor twists that make the game last longer. There are only 3 girls in this game, and they usually look rather morose. If the case art offends or attracts you, then there is much more of the same in the game. However, the JAST catalog entry for this title shows things that don't occur in the game: I never saw one girl undressing another during play, and the undressed girls aren't seen while you're doing the jan-ken-pon thing. The retail price of $14.95 is surprisingly low for an H game of any size, but it's understandable considering the speed with which most players should be able to complete the game and lose interest. The game CD comes with HTML and PDF versions of the JAST USA catalog, and a H "Image Vault" accessible via a web browser. This Image Vault has H pictures from various games, none of which are identified, but only a few of which I recognized (because they were from JAST USA releases or games that I'd played already). Strangely, some of the pictures had a narrow black bar over the girl's eyes, something that I've seen before only when you're trying to conceal somebody's identity. I wonder why this was done? Anyway, these don't take up much room on the CD, and you may spend a good fraction of the time it took to beat the game looking through them afterwards - that's how quick I expect you to finish. For some reason, when you start the game (click on LIGHT UP!.EXE in the disc's root directory), it momentarily shows a large window, and then switches to a much smaller one. There's no way to make this game use your entire screen, except by changing your Windows video settings. It may be my Riva TNT2 video card, but 256 colors looked awful at any size, but 16 and 32 bit color was fine. The case doesn't mention that you should be using more than 256 colors, but the JAST catalog says something about 16-bit artwork. Even at 640*480 size though, the game didn't use the entire screen. As the game was done in Macromedia, which can take over the entire screen, I wonder what the purpose was there. I did notice in 640*480 mode that the game would move the window partially off the screen when switching to a new girl. The rules for the game are explained reasonably well both on the case insert and in the Readme file on the disc. What they don't mention are: 1. The Roulette Challenge. After you win a Rock-Paper-Scissors contest, you then have to guess the direction she'll point. If you get this one right too, the roulette wheel starts up and you have to left-click to stop it. The wheel has a distressing habit of going one more place, after you think for sure it's stopped. On average, if this is a "fair" wheel, there should be no effect, as the average should still be one piece of clothing lost each time. Unfortunately, sometimes I got unlucky, like the time I got 3 "0" in a row. Anyway, the number that the wheel finally stops on is how many pieces of clothing the girl has to take off. And annoyingly, if you DO get a "2", the game shows you the intermediate step only momentarily, rather than letting you see it and click to go on. 2. Your HP. Basically, you can lose 4 times before you have to start over. A loss is when you lose the Rock-Paper-Scissors contest AND she also matches your choice of direction. 3. Continue. However, even if you lose 4 times you can come back and not have to play from the beginning. The game gives you a Continue screen and a 10 second timer to press the button to go back into the game. If you've beaten a particular girl during this playing session, when you resume you won't have to do her again. So, with a little persistence, you will get to see all 3 girls. Hints and Cheats: I didn't detect any useful pattern to how the game played. But I also tried to avoid a pattern myself in how I played. Overall, it took me 3 Continues to finish all 3 girls once, and the last girl a second time. Now how did I do that last thing I mentioned? Well, on the title screen, where you choose the language, you click on a specific part of a girl instead. That will start you playing in English (at least on my system) with that girl. This only works for the second and third girls (in the center and on the right), because the first girl (on the left of the title screen) is always there when you start a new game. To start playing with the second girl (Kyoko): click on the blue and white thing holding her yellow scarf together. To start playing with the third girl (Mio): click on her panties. If you pick a language other than English, you still get a screen with the girls that allows you to click on the scarf holder or the panties before the game really starts. Unfortunately, you can't use the "Ctrl-Esc" cheat that I found for "Manga Doll City" with this game. Press the Esc key to immediately exit the game. And the Spoontoons player (v2.6) won't help with the .DXR files in this game. But it's simple enough that you should be able to finish it in less than an hour. When you do finish the game, you just get a credits screen, and then a Macromedia screen, and the game window closes. One thing I was hoping for was a chance to see all the girl's pictures - nope. I don't know where else to put this: doesn't Mio's closed mouth look a lot like a thin black mustache? It's rather puzzling that the game has over 300 Mb of data. There's not that much graphics or voice to it. Is Macromedia Director really that wasteful of space? Or is there a LOT MORE to this game that I somehow missed? There is no installer or setup program needed by the game. You will need either a web browser or a JPG viewer to see the images in the Image Vault. A web browser is also needed to see the HTML JAST USA catalog, and Adobe Acrobat Reader to see the PDF version of the catalog. Good to see they're planning on more products, and I'm interested in all the ones I don't have yet. Mini Review: A low-priced product with good production values. Little replay value once you beat it the first time, which won't be long. Too bad the game window isn't larger (so the images of the girls don't have to scroll), there's no photoshop, or more girls, a multiplayer option, option to turn off the roulette wheel, etc. Anyway, it's cute and non-violent and pretty soft-core as far as H goes. It won't hurt the business of bringing over Japanese H games to the non-Japanese community, but it won't be remembered for very long. Buy it if you own everything else, or are ordering a bunch of stuff at once, or just can't get enough of Rock-Paper-Scissors in your daily life. If you have anything to add to this file, let me know. Peter Karsanow - bishoujo.helper[AT}sbcglobal{DOT)net http://www.geocities.com/hentaihelper/