Bratz: Forever Diamondz
| Developer: THQ | Publisher: THQ |
| Release Date: September 18, 2006 | Also On: DS |
Games aimed at girls are nothing new. Indeed, there were games based on such licenses as Barbie and The Little Mermaid as early as the NES era. The theory seems to be that if a reasonably entertaining game utilizing girlish elements is released, girls will play it. To that end, THQ has released Bratz: Forever Diamondz for the GBA to coincide with the release of the DVD by the same name. Surprisingly, despite the pervasive girlish elements in this game, it is still a somewhat entertaining title while it lasts.
Graphically, this game is a mixed bag. The environments come across fairly well, although they are not the most detailed in the world. The characters, however, are somewhat unimpressive in their appearance, at least when you are in the overworld. They look decent also in mini-games and cutscenes. Overall, there is nothing graphically that would be considered hideous, but if you’re looking for a game to show off the GBA’s graphical capabilities, this isn’t it.
So far as the sound is concerned, the music in this game is reasonably catchy. Granted, much of it is the same music that’s in the DS version, but that probably just means that both versions of the game borrowed the music from the DVD. The sound effects are decent also. The plot advanced in cutscenes that used text, but this is more forgivable for the GBA version than it is for the DS version. Overall, I had no major problems with the sound.
The gameplay in this game focuses on three things: exploration, objectives, and mini-games, which causes it to have more depth than the DS version of the game. Unlike the DS version, which had you simply tap a place on the bottom screen to go there, in the GBA version you can actually walk or run around the town and explore to find the places to go. As you do this, you will meet people who will ask you to do things for them, and these objectives are also something that the DS version lacks. Granted, most of the tasks revolve around finding an object or number of objects in whatever town you’re in and bringing them to the person who wanted them, but even these tasks help the exploration aspect of the game. Some of the tasks are related to mini-games, however.
The mini-games in this game are reasonably varied, and all are simple enough that even someone who is young or is new to gaming should have little problem with them. In most cases, you can’t even lose, and the only thing you gain for doing well is that your monetary payout is better. This is a good thing because one of the objectives in a couple of the towns will be to purchase a certain number of new clothing items. Once you have bought some new clothing items, you can access a menu and change what the characters are wearing, although you are never required to do so.
Anyway, the mini-games, like I said, aren’t all the same, although some are directly repeated or repeated with slight differences. Many of them reflect the fashion passion of the main characters in the game. For example, one of the mini-games involves hitting button combinations in the correct order to make one of your girls pose for cameras during a fashion show. These elements are things that a guy like myself may not appreciate as much as a girl would, but they are true to the license on which the game is based, which is always a good thing when you’re talking about a licensed game.
The story mode in this game will only take you a couple hours to beat, but this game is pretty good for those couple hours despite being aimed at girls. Once you have beaten a mini-game in the story mode, it unlocks into a separate mini-game mode so you can play them again at your leisure. Most of them you probably won’t care to replay too often, although I, being a fan of puzzle games, was somewhat smitten by a mini-game in which the objective was to move a needle back and forth to try to get falling jewels onto a bracelet in the proper order. All this goes to say that this game doesn’t bring a particularly lengthy experience.
Overall, though, with two exceptions, the GBA version of this game outshines the DS version in every way, at least in my opinion. The two exceptions are the GBA version’s lack of any multiplayer capability and the fact that, in some ways, the fact that the mini-games in the DS version make them slightly more engaging, although not by much. Therefore, although I would be hesitant to recommend even this version of the game to most gamers, I would definitely recommend that, if you are a Bratz fan looking to get this game, you go with the GBA version over the DS version.
| Graphics: | 6 |
| Sound: | 7 |
| Gameplay: | 7 |
| Creativity: | 6 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 5 |
| Final: | 6.2 |
| Written by Martin | Review Guide |
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