Note: This review covers the game itself. There is a joke link on its home page for an "X-rated patch" that links to a pornographic fanfic, which we will not cover. This game is also interactive and based on 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return circa 2022, so having a copy handy (or a suitable sample) will be required for play. You do not need to enter real information, but you need the above tax form to follow the gameplay without trial and error. This should not be used for doing real-world taxes since it was only intended for the 2022 year and you may wish to avoid putting in any real information in its prompts for this reason.

In my time playing games, I have played some goofy, niche, weird, and downright bizarre games. Visual novels are prone to having these games, and in a world where there are dating sims for Colonel Sanders (yes, really), I found what may be even weirder. Behold Tax Heaven 3000, a game about doing your taxes and finding a relationship with someone as you bond over your financials.

Before we continue, let me be clear this is a game. It's a visual novel made in Ren'Py. At the same time, it does serve as a glorified tax return form helper, so if you have a printer and the proper forms handy, you can do an actual run-through of your actual taxes with something to print out when you are done.

The game plot is pretty simple. Your protagonist is looking for a girlfriend and manages to run into a cute girl named Iris one day. Somehow the hellos got off onto the subject of tax returns and thus begins a series of dates where your protagonist (who you name) and Iris get to know each other better and get your taxes done before the government gets cross with you.

It's a simple if weird premise, but the game shows the amusing romance of a guy and the Iris (aka IRS, the Internal Revenue Service). They also introduce a rival called Turbo, who is an overbearing and jerkish stand-in for TurboTax, the tax preparation software that the developers considered predatory and deceptive in its practices and is personified by trying to convince Iris to ditch you for him. This is an analog for how in real life TurboTax has had an antagonistic relationship with the IRS while also trying to supplant many of its functions.

The core gameplay loop involves the classic visual novel click-on choices till you reach the end, with multiple endings (including some early bad ends if you are trying to do super complicated tax forms the game doesn't support). You do have to enter in actual information that would show up on a real tax form since it was designed around the 2022 American tax season. You can use a sample of those documents and punch in absolute nonsense, you are not required to put in real information. While it does help make a real form you could do taxes with (now defunct post-2022) via your printer, it does not have any internet connection, so it's not going to steal your tax info if you put in the real thing.

The graphical style is very anime-ish and very bright and colorful, which contrasts the dull premise of doing tax forms. As a Ren'Py game, the graphical interface is going to be fairly simple, with no frills, but not unpleasant to look at either. The music and sounds are gentle ambient tracks. Nothing special, but does set a pleasant mood.

Like most visual novels, it uses the mouse and keyboard, and if youve played one visual novel this is going to be old hat. If not, just click to advance text and type in information when and where they ask till you reach the end. This is rock solid on Windows and macOS. It has no Linux version, but can easily be made to run via Wine.

Morally, this is not going to be too bad. There are some minor dating innuendos and flirting, but nothing that would be overly shocking to a young teenager. Aside from that, this is going to be a morally clean game, and for obvious reasons, while the developers don't advise using this for any real-world purpose anymore, it still does function and would take most generic tax information. If you'd rather not risk putting in real information (and that could be wise since the printing function is still there), you can always put fake information, the game will not penalize you.

Honestly, this is a pretty short and weird game that is basically an anime tutorial on doing your taxes in the form of a quirky dating sim. Technically, if you can turn on your computer you are likely going to run this fine. Morally, aside from some mild flirting, there isn't too much to worry about. Since it's free, if you'd like to see this bizarre niche of taxes meets visual novel, it's worth giving it a shot once for the novelty.