"You're kidding. They make non-porn versions of games like that? Wow. That's... really sad."

-Junko, Megatokyo #1174

The Dating Sim is a type of game designed to set up goals, usually in the forms of schedules and stats corresponding to social skills, which must be achieved to discover a story focused entirely around the Character Development of the player's chosen girl, get into her pants, or both. This leads to Multiple Endings, though some Dating Sims make it possible to see several of these "endings" in a single playthrough.

Some Dating Sims have been made into harem anime, though the result is usually nothing special due to the removal of sex and the fact that the narrative can no longer focus on any single girl.

Because there is almost no market for true Dating Sim games outside of Japan, it's a frequent misunderstanding among western gamers that "Dating Sim" is the general term for all ren'ai (romantic love) games. In fact, many romance games are Visual Novels, which is a quite different game style. (See for example, the difference between the Ace Attorney series, which is very close to a Visual Novel style of gameplay, and the DOA Xtreme series, which is the closest to a true Dating Sim with mass-market appeal in the US.)

Examples

Angelique
Brave Soul is a cross between Dating Sim and Eastern RPG genres.
Casual Romance Club
Da Capo
Da Capo II
The Dead Or Alive "Xtreme Beach Volleyball" series are probably the most recognizable Dating Sims in the Western market
- With the added twist that the dating is between girls.
First Kiss Story
Galaxy Angel Gameverse
Gate Keepers
Getter Love!! (the *only* dating sim on the Nintendo 64.)
- Also has the slogan "Board game? No. Dating simulator? No. GETTER LOVE!!"
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de
Harvest Moon games include Dating Sim subplots.
Many games from Japanese hentai game maker "Illusion" could be considered dating sims, with a minimal amount of sim, and a lot of Jiggle Physics. (Among other stuff)
Kin'iro no Corda (a.k.a. La Corda d'Oro)
Mai-HiME (Unmei no Keitouju) - Inverted as the game was made after the anime was such a huge success.
Meine Liebe
Memories Off
Mitsumete Knight (One of Tokimeki Memorial's Spiritual Successors)
Persona 3 and Persona 4
- While these two Persona games have Dating Sim elements, in the end, they also have a robust combat system and large amounts of dungeon crawling. Don't let their inclusion on this list confuse you.
Pia Carrot
Princess Debut
Riviera The Promised Land contains some Dating Sim subplots.
Rumbling Hearts
Rune Factory
Sakura Taisen
Sentimental Graffiti
The Sims series: You can devote all, none, or some of your gameplay towards romance subplots.
Sister Princess
Summon Night
- This is an interesting series as the games vary in genre. The main entries in the series are SRPG's whereas the other games in the series are action games. However all of them incorporate Dating Sim elements with the standard multiple endings for the characters that join you.
Thousand Arms (also an Eastern RPG)
To Heart
- To Heart 2
Tokimeki Memorial
True Love Story
Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na

Parodies

Excel Saga, naturally, did an episode parodying these. In a Running Gag, the male characters suddenly find themselves in a game with several options, the last generally being "Put It In."
- "Who puts a BOMB in a DATING GAME?!!"
Likewise, one episode of Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai featured a world that partially functioned as a Dating Sim (with an all-girl cast and drawn in a Moe style), to the point of Sasshi requesting a replay so he could end up with a different girl.
Galaxy Angel (ONLY the games; the anime is something altogether different)
Super Paper Mario parodies the genre in a pre-Boss Battle cutscene. When the boss, a geeky chameleon named Francis, meets Princess Peach, the game turns into a dating sim with Francis playing it and the player providing her responses. Princess Peach quickly becomes annoyed at the concept, and sics Boomer on the Nerr2Babe Interface - which has the side effect of nuking Francis' video card. Cue the boss battle, folks.
- To both reiterate and answer the Excel Saga quote, Peach indeed had a bomb available.
Final Fantasy VII has an ongoing pastiche of one, which leads to dating one of four characters (one of which is The Lancer and extremely male) at a minor scene later on. Interestingly, all of them contain some character and plot development - Aeris's scene foreshadows Cloud's Tomato In The Mirror moment later on, Tifa's serves as proof that she Can Not Spit It Out, Yuffie's is the only one in which Cloud actually gets a kiss, and Barret's is part non-sequitur rant, part self-parodying Ho Yay, and culminates in Cloud being (bizarrely) accused of being a paedophile.
In Genshiken, shameless Otaku Madarame spends almost a whole episode in a room alone with Dungeon Masters Girlfriend Saki, trying to work up the courage to talk to her. This is emphasised by dream sequences in which he imagines her as a character in a Dating Sim, complete with Art Shift - and repeatedly ends up clicking 'Do nothing'. He bemoans in his internal monologue how real life has more choices than just three, and how it's not always obvious which one to make.
In Axis Powers Hetalia, Korea asks if China likes him. China is about to respond with no, but stops when he sees a little box above Korea that says that any response will lead to sex. Which is somewhat awkward considering the two are brothers.
Yes: "Than it's alright if I XXX than?"
No: "If you don't like me, I'll just XXX you!"
In Full Metal Panic, Sousuke's classmates attempt to prepare him for a date by having him play a Dating Sim. His military-wired mind causes him to be blatantly honest to the girl, upsetting her and losing the game, much to his consternation.
- A similar arc occurs with Vanilla in Galaxy Angel.
La Mulana, upon acquiring certain MSX ROMs, lets you play what at first appears to be an MSX version of Tokimeki Memorial, and the heroine, Shiori, is talking about how she'd like to take her friendship with Taihei (your character) to the next level until she comments that she had a toothache since this morning. Taihei then discovers a piece of fake skin on the ground, and Shiori then reveals herself to be a Snatcher. After satrical dialogue on women in dating sims, you're thrown into a battle against Shiori while being careful not to shoot the "game mascot", Gyonin (A.K.A. Metal Fish MSX3 Turbo R Plus). After the whole ordeal is over, another girl named Nijino runs up... only to reveal herself as a Snatcher as well. ~~Here We Go Again~~ Syntax error in 1220
A recent DMFA bonus arc mocks this without mercy.
This is the main point of Experimental Comic Kotone.

Special Mentions

Oddly enough, GTA IV has this as a feature, complete with different places to go, activities to play, and different opinions with each and every girl. You can even meet them online on the internet and eventually have "hot coffee" with them. Your clothes, vehicle, driving skills, calling time, amount of calling (if you call too much, you're a stalker, but too little, and they'd think you'd forgotten them), all count in to how they view you. They remember what you have and where you go too. Each girl also has a totally different personality and interest, along with benefits if they like you enough. Even more surprisingly, you can also hook up with guys, although they are of the guy friend variety, like drinking or going to a strip club, but it's still the same basic feature. With all this, they also implement this feature directly into the storyline several times, along with the horrify ending with deciding the death of a dear friend or already mentally scarred girlfriend.
- San Andreas also had this feature (a stripped down earlier version), although it didn't tie too much into the story aside from stealing a access card from one.