Barbie: Island Princess

List Price: $5.99 Discount Price: $5.33

Features:

• Live the exotic life of Rosella the Island Princess!
• Interact with your native animal friends
• 28 different exciting mini-games
• 2-player capability
• Lush, colorful backdrops in 5 distinct locations

Customer Reviews:

Not the quality/fun of the prior Barbie games [Posted on 2007-12-25]
This game is a Christmas present for our bright 6.5-year old, and after about an hour of play, she's pronounced it good, but not as much fun as the other Barbie games (she has Barbie of Swan Lake, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus and Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses) which were all solid 5 stars.

Continuing the progression of more advanced/smooth-running graphics in each new game, this one is visually very appealing, but the 'mini game' format is more like a collection of arcade games than a story. In Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, for example, Barbie went through the levels of the game to defeat the evil Wenlock (?sp). Here, the games are completely separate with no ultimate goal. From a parent's point of view, that's bad.

Also, the games themselves don't seem the least educational...just games with no skill building, although to be fair, we have seen only about half the games so far.

Last, many games do require a bit of reading, so it's not suitable for children who are pre-readers. My 1st grader can read about 80% of the instructions, and I would say most of the UI (User Interface) designers don't have children, as the words in the documentation could have been simplified. Despite both of us reading the directions on the 'buncha bananas' game, it didn't seem to work, as Barbie would not move forward more than a few steps.

In summary, while my daughter is enjoying the game, I don't expect it to hold her attention for repeat play as the other Barbie games have. I suspect this game was rushed out for Christmas delivery, and would have benefitted from a little more thoughtful design that would have tied the plot lines of the book and movie into the game.

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