Pico Sim Date <3
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The content below is not official to the Pico franchise. |
Animu Pico's back and ready to mingle with NG's finest booty! - Newgrounds Description
Pico Sim Date 3 (stylized as Pico Sim Date <3) is a romance simulation game co-created by Moosh & RiceKappa and released on April 25, 2015, for Pico Day. It is the third and final installment in the Pico Sim Date trilogy, following Pico Sim Date and Pico Sim Date 2. In the game, Pico, now attending college, discovers that he has contracted an unknown disease, and has limited time to live. Not wanting to waste any more time, Pico decides to get together with multiple women, and find a cure for his disease before it's too late.
Unlike its predecessors, Pico Sim Date <3 is a soft reboot of the series and includes more explicit scenes that involve sexual encounters. Upon its release on Newgrounds, it received critical acclaim from users and fans alike. A remastered version of the game created on the Unity engine was released in April 2019.
Plot
The game starts with Pico writing in his diary, remarking that he is about to start his first day as a Freshman at Newgrounds University, and making a note of what his plans are for the future. Pico then continues to pour his heart out into his writing, until he remembers a meeting with a doctor two days prior to the start of the game.
The doctor told Pico that he is dying from an unknown, possibly incurable disease, and may only have three months to live. Realizing that his school orientation occurs in five minutes, Pico leaves before the doctor can give him all the details on his disease.
He then continues to write until he remembers that the doctor mentioned something about a disease. Depending on what he writes down, he may have more or less than three months to live. Pico then finishes writing his diary, excited about the world he is about to explore.
Pico only has three objectives from this point on:
- Fuck Bitches
- Get Money
- Find A Cure(?)
Release, reception & legacy
Like the previous games, Pico Sim Date <3 was created in the Adobe Flash program and can be played on Newgrounds. There, it became the Review Crew Pick of 2015, earning the Daily Feature & Weekly 2nd Place awards, and was featured on the front page. There is no day or energy limit and only Allie, Bree, Donna, Hun-Ni, and Trish are dateable. Nene also appears in this version, but her route is unavailable. The original Flash version has since received over 1.1 million views on Newgrounds, with a review score of 4.52/5.00.
Additionally, Pico Sim Date <3 is featured on the Pico Day 2015 collection. Due to the end of Flash Player support in 2020, development of Pico Sim Date <3 was continued in the Unity engine.
Unity re-release
On April 13, 2019, Moosh announced an enhanced port of Pico Sim Date <3 using the Unity engine. The Unity version of the game features numerous additions to the game, such as:
- More dateable girls
- New art for all the previously used and unused dateable girls
- New mechanics
The Unity version is currently in development and beta builds can only be played if one obtains the $5 level from Moosh's Patreon and downloads them.
Trivia
- Both versions of Pico Sim Date <3's main menu screens utilize a remix of The Final Countdown by Europe.
- The remix in the Flash version is by the Newgrounds user Wooormy.
- The remix in the Unity version is by michaeltjanaka.
- Pico Sim Date <3 was originally going to be called Pico RPG.
- According to Moosh, Pico Sim Date <3, or at least the Flash demo, does not take place in the same continuity as Pico Sim Date 1 and 2, seeing as in-game, Pico and Nene have never met before. However, in the full Unity version, it would be revealed that they've known each other since high school.[1]
- Aside from Nene, various girls that are dateable in-game are based around iconic Newgrounds characters:
- Allie, the "Hominid", is modeled after Alien Hominid.
- Bree, or Dashkin-Chan, is based off of Bitey from Brackenwood.
- Clover is inspired by Strawberry Clock of the Clock Crew.
- Donna is based around the main characters of Chainsaw The Children & Dad 'n Me. Her nickname "Daddy's Girl" is also a reference to the latter.
- Fabulousa is directly based on F-Bot of the Newgrounds Bots.
- Hun-Ni is the daughter of Doki and Nabi from There she is!!.
- Trish is unambiguously a reference to the TANKMEN series, nicknamed the "Tank-Chick".
- Wendy is not based on anything Newgrounds-related but instead, is roughly based off Wikipe-tan and acts as a tribute to The Game Theorists. In fact, the puzzle piece in her hair very faintly displays the Game Theory logo.[2]
- Sabrina is also a returning character from Pico Sim Date 2, and another date-able girl not based on a pre-existing Newgrounds IP.
