Singles: Flirt Up Your Life

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Singles: Flirt Up Your Life

Developer(s)	Rotobee
Publisher(s)	Deep Silver
Release date(s)	April 2nd, 2004 (EU) October 5th, 2004 (US)
Genre(s)	Simulation game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	BBFC: 18 ESRB: AO ESRB: M (cut) OFLC: RC (Banned) PEGI: 16+
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Media	download

Singles: Flirt Up Your Life is a video game by Rotobee and published by German company Deep Silver in 2004.

It is very similar to The Sims in that the player is responsible for characters who have to be taken care of, such as by ordering them to eat, sleep, go to work, etc.

Only two characters are ever in the same household. The aim of the game is to get them from being casual acquaintances through to having a sexual relationship. There are several characters of either gender with the possibility for a gay/lesbian relationships as well.

The game is available for sale via download from the company's website, with payment required to continue playing after the one-hour time limit was up. In Australia, it was banned by the OFLC as it had exceeded the highest allowable rating for video games, which was MA15+. It has been debated as to whether or not an R18+ rating (which currently applies only to films and DVDs) should be introduced for video games.

It contains full frontal nudity, with the character's anatomical attributes drawn in high detail. The CD-ROM version sold in the USA has the nude groins and female chests blurred out.

[edit] Comparision to earlier games

Singles was largely panned by critics for being a rip-off of The Sims and the way it offered little challenge, with the player required to simply follow a routine of making the characters progress from making small talk through to professing love then running off to bed together via the simple interaction menus. The 'needs' are also considered fairly inconsequential, with the characters never starving to death even when their 'hunger' need has dropped to zero. One critic suggested that the game was the expensive equivalent of stripping the clothes from an Action Man and Barbie dolls and putting them in compromising positions for fun. Others thought that game was not sexually explicit enough.

However, despite such criticisms, the game has proved to be fairly popular download. One thing most critics can agree on is that Singles has a very impressive game engine and superb visuals.