updated Oct 2004, originally written in 2000

Diva X Ennnn...Jaay.... what?

The native French N'J De Bahia is a demanding actress who flew to Hollywood to appear in a modest selection of porn films, who then apparently lost work because of her crappy attitude, and then flew right back to France. She sounds like a sultry female dracula during the intro vid when she intones, "I vant you to make love to me, " and sports an unpronouncable name. But hey, she IS hot. And when this title came out in the late 90s, that was plenty enough to get people going, well men going. And lesbians. Maybe.

Why is that? Because back then there was little to choose from in terms of adult interactive entertainment. But times have changed and the 'adult cd-rom market' (as one industry insider once put it to me) died an instant death with the introduction of dvds.

Pixis had their patented TFUI (Touch and Feel User Interface), where the player chooses from an array of icons, indicating various body parts and a dildo, to use on N'J. There is the option to make her perform acts on herself or allow a male actor to take the helm, representing an onscreen extension of the player. During these times the camera is usually arranged to give you the perspective of said actor, who is played by N'J's real life boyfriend, Sergio (what else would his name be?) It must help the sex that it's her boyfriend, because this bitch laps on this schlong like it's an orgasm-inducing ice-cream cone that fuels her survival. Other times she seems a little uptight, casting an icy stare. Or maybe it's a look of boredom.

This is one of many scenes that you control as you choose which action to perform. Occasionally your choice produces video segments that are interspersed seamlessly throughout. . I must give credit to Pixis for filming scenes in a way that freeze-frames always look great, like holding a hot facial expression for example; and reverse motion is as fluid and natural-looking as forward motion (TFUI, although mostly a bullshit gimick, allows you to move the action forwards and backwards with simple mouse strokes, controlling the speed and resulting in smooth movement).

The sound effects are mostly sparse, producing random moans and gasps in harmony with your mouse gyrations. There could have been more audio. It's silly to watch a close up of a penis plunge silently and furiously into a vagina.

This wasn't the best example of the Diva X titles. Having said that, the Diva X series was a great chapter in interactive porn, preceding Digital Playground's Virtual Sex series (which came out on PC before switching exclusively to DVDs) and lending some influence to many products that came after. Unfortunately, Pixis couldn't hang in there and they folded. That's too bad because the tools for what they were striving to do are more advanced now and the audience is wider.