 Review By: Siou Choy |
Developer: | Barking Lizards |
| Publisher: | THQ | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Accessories: | N/A | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Any readers out there who might be unfamiliar with the Bratz line of dolls should count themselves lucky. For those of you who do possess some unfortunate level of awareness of this rather distasteful franchise, may I express my deepest sympathies. The shortest summation, for those in the former group, is that the Bratz line of dolls can be considered close kin to the insipid and much maligned Barbie line, albeit without a nose, possessed of an inordinately large head (which applies in both the physical and metaphorical senses), and very little occupying that vast expanse between the ears.
It’s really a shame that the likes of Bratz and its real life counterparts are all the young girls of today have to live up to. Not only do they represent something of a poor choice in role model (to say the least), but their vapid, selfish and materialistic values can only serve to steer and influence said girls in a decidedly wrongheaded direction. An outsized, nigh exclusive obsession with money, looks, and “bling bling” are all that matter in the Bratz world.
The game’s razor thin plot (were you really expecting a multi-level meditation on existential issues, or perhaps a treatise on the relativity of truth ala Rashomon?) leaves the Bratz girls and a few of their male friends transferred to a new school. Having little else to occupy their empty lives, the girls are all set to make their mark on the school. This is accomplished rather unconvincingly, ala Zoey 101, by playing through a series of mini-games, each of which can be played through multiple times subsequent to completion. Let’s be blunt here: the mini-games are both poorly explained and lame.
One mini-game apes Space Channel 9, wherein you have to copy the moves of your instructor. In another, you play a rather toned down, simplified version of a memory game involving the matching of cards. Since the developers were aiming pretty low based on the likely fanbase of such a vapid and empty franchise, the memory game consists of a whopping two pairs of cards. Needless to say, this game is extremely easy. It takes quite awhile for this game to build to the point where it’s even remotely challenging.
Posted: 2007-12-06 19:58:04 PST