Barbie

"Fun Game. For Little Girls, of course."

Though it is a Barbie game, I found it to be kinda fun, more fun when I first played it at 5 years old. Anyway, let's go into the details.

The Graphics. I thought it was quite well for a Nintendo game. They tried their best. I see the youthful feminine appeal to it with their choice of colors. In most of the levels, there's lots of stuff going on from the background to the enemies or random objects.

The first stage is store-themed. It's very busy-looking. For example, the background is very patterned. The first level is patterned with tennis balls, the second with teddy bears, and the third with roses. The color theme is turquoise and pink, though the third is more on the green side. The second stage is a mall, or "galleria." The color theme is pink and purple. The dress you wish for at a fountain would probably make all little girls go "OMG" (Well, I did when I was little). The third stage, you're in the ocean where you're a mermaid. The fourth stage is at a soda pop restaurant with a '50s theme to it. Plus, for each stage, Barbie's outfit changes. When I was little, the mermaid stage was my favorite, but now I think I like the soda pop stage more just because of the enemies (mini bouncing ice cream cones, burgers, popcorn, and floating cars all with eyes).

The Music/Sound. The music is good, I would say. It's mostly upbeat with an '80s appeal (one stage the '50s) to little girls because, you know, it's a Barbie game. The funny thing is that the enemy jellyfish has its own BGM that sounds like "Jaws" to an extent. Furthermore, the sound effects could be a bit iffy at sometimes, but nothing too bad to hate about it. Like the dog doesn't sound like a dog.

Gameplay. It's a side-scroller like Mario, but it's a lot different. First thing is there's this system where you can throw this thing--I have no idea what it is. I'll say at best it's a charm from a charm bracelet because that's what it shows in the bottom screen. There's three types each doing different functions. The first one is the ribbon charm. I don't remember much which this one does. The second is the diamond charm. It makes something move, like a dog or a cat. The heart charm may do the same function as the second one. It's sort of random, hence the question mark. You can control how far you want to throw the charm depending on how long you hold down the button.

Unlike Mario, you don't bop on the head of enemies. There's not much killing in this, but there are bosses which are things like having a cat close a volley ball bin so they won't keep coming out, clothes attacking you, closing pizza ovens, melting ice cream that throws cherries at you, and so on. (I can see where that other reviewer is going with the LSD.)

I don't think there's any meaning to the score-keeping unless it does give you an extra Z at some point, but I don't think it does.

Difficulty. This game can be very difficult. You do get a certain amount of continues (five, if not less). I think you can get at most nine Z's which acts like life points. Some things are just hard to avoid. Like in the mermaid stage, if you go down the wrong maze path, you will most likely and inevitably get attacked by the jellyfish. I haven't found a way to avoid getting hit by it. The very last level before the final boss is a pain. It's practically a pile of jump trials, and if you mess up, you have to start all over. If you want to beat the game, you most likely would want a cheat code.

The controls are not that hard since the Nintendo controller only uses a few buttons, but it can get aggravating. It's sometimes hard to jump from one thing to another. (Now apply that to the final level.) Aiming with the charm can be a pain, too. It could take 3-5 tries to hit the thing you want to hit.

Conclusion! So, if you like the game, you're most likely a girl and young. And like Barbie (duh). The reason I probably like it is because of nostalgic reasons. I give it a 7/10. Less if you're a guy, more if you're a 10-year-old girl.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/09

Game Release: Barbie (US, December 1991)