Although Nene Anegasaki had only known her boyfriend for a short time, she readily accepted his marriage proposal. Not that she had a choice. That’s because Nene is videogame character. One of three potential love interests in Love Plus, a dating sim for the Nintendo DS. Nene may not be real but her wedding was. Thousands watched live via the internet as Nene & the anonymous groom, known only as SAL9000, said I do.
“In the Japanese otaku or nerd culture, there’s a tradition of calling characters my wife, and I sort of thought of Nene as my wife,” he explained. “Since I was calling her that, I thought we’d just have to get married then.”
Nene’s default personality is calm and mature but if you know how to push her buttons she can be assertive and passionate or active and teasing. You interact with the girls by pretending to listen to them and responding with generic replies or by poking them with your stylus (just like real women).
“I think I’ll probably continue playing Love Plus. I won’t cheat,” SAL9000 promised. Too bad the same cannot be said for Nene. Before the two met, Nene was selling herself at the local videogame store. And it seems SAL9000’s skills weren’t enough to satisfy Nene because now she’s giving it away for free at the DS ROM website Romulation.net. Unfortunately like most dating sims Love Plus is available only in Japanese, but a translation patch is the works @ tsukuru.info/tlwiki.
