Ludography
Surviving High School cover

2005 · EA Mobile · Text adventure · Visual novel

Surviving High School

Nintendo console exclusive

Experience high school drama at Centerscore High in this text-based game.

Released
30 April 2005
Platforms
AndroidLegacy Mobile DeviceNintendo DSiOS
Genres
Text adventureVisual novel
Developers
EA Mobile
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Text
Country
United States
Age ratings
ESRB E10+

About

Surviving High School was a visual novel game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It was originally released for mobile phones in 2005, later being made available for iPhone and iPod Touch in 2009 and for iPad and Android OS in 2011. New episodes were released and available for download on a weekly basis. It shared many similarities in terms of gameplay mechanics and visuals to its sister game, Cause of Death, which was also developed by EA Games.

Some of the characters from Surviving High School later featured in the sister game, High School Story, by Pixelberry Studios. The character Autumn Brooks transferred out of Surviving High School's Centerscore High after having been bullied, and she featured prominently in High School Story alongside other characters with minor roles, such as Owen, Wes, and Kimi. This ties in with a bullying theme carried through High School Story and their partnership with The Cybersmile Foundation. Autumn's bullying storyline from Surviving High School enables her to help a student called Hope in High School Story, who is being cyberbullied; this storyline helps to raise awareness of the issues of bullying and cyberbullying in high school students.

Keywords

  • text adventure
  • dsiware

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Surviving High School was a choice-based visual novel with elements of Choose your Own Adventure and interactive fiction. It followed Centerscore High, a typical high school with clear cliques of students. Players controlled several unique Centerscore students throughout the game. They are given scenarios where they must choose between two or more decisions that may negatively or positively affect the outcome of each story.

Stories are presented through episodes, which are grouped within volumes or sets. Volumes typically contain around eight episodes. Prior to the September 2012 update, the game came with two free playable stories: "The Football Star" and "The New Girl". While both stories allowed the customization of the player character's name, only the former allowed the changing of appearance.

Reception

Surviving High School received mixed-to-positive reviews. Nintendo Life praised its "cast of interesting and likeable characters", while criticizing its "tedious" gameplay. This sentiment was shared by IGN's review, which noted that the game "suffers a few frustrations" in its minigames.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Legacy Mobile Device30 April 2005Worldwide
iOS16 November 2009Worldwide
Nintendo DS19 April 2010North America · Europe 30 April 2010
Android22 December 2011Worldwide

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.