Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper – GBA – Review – GBA – Review

Barbie, love her or hate her, has been very successfully translated into software and video games for many years now. Recently, she has also made her debut into movies, with her latest home video (due to be released in late September) entitled “Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper”. This movie also serves as the theme for Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper for the Game Boy Advance. Needless to say, this GBA game will probably be in high demand among young girls. But parents will want to know, is it worth it? Well, if you have a young Barbie fan who also likes to play GBA games, yes, it’s a fairly good game that, while not the best children’s game on the GBA, still manages to deliver in terms of fun and ease of playability for young children.

Not having seen the movie, I can’t really say how close the gameplay follows the movie, but it appears to only loosely correlate, with the same characters and locations, but not much else that is the same. The story for the game is that Preminger is trying to cause chaos to ensue in the kingdom, by shutting off vital sources for the markets and other economic outlets, so the kingdom will lose money and Preminger will be able to take over the throne. Princess Anneliese and (former) Pauper Erika, along with their pet cats, will need to fix all the problems throughout the kingdom and restore the mines and farms in order to spoil Preminger’s evil scheme.

This is a basic scrolling platform game, that uses standard platforming elements such as jumping, avoiding enemies and hazards and collecting items along the way. There are five worlds, each with four levels and an unlockable mini-game at the end of each world. Cooperative play is also featured, as there are two playable characters in each of the levels. The worlds are different locations, but each world looks pretty much like the other in terms of appearance and gameplay. Players will need to collect a certain number of items from each level to complete the level, by jumping over hazards while avoiding enemies that either throw items at or run into the characters. There is a puzzle-like quality to many of the levels, as players will need to figure out how to get to a certain item, and also which character to use to achieve that goal.

While there are enemies and other dangers that can hurt the characters, these are pretty much easily avoided except for some annoying fruit that falls off the trees in some tight spots. There is also a handy supply of life-giving roses scattered around, that regenerates after each use.

The controls are very simple, as each character only has one special move on the B button. These moves consist of the ability to dig holes, sing notes to knock down items, use a shield to avoid water hazards and push items around by swatting at them. Swapping between characters is accomplished by the L button.

The beginning levels are very easy, but gradually become more difficult during the game. The different moves of each character is demonstrated very well in the beginning levels, and subsequent levels often have tips on accomplishing the given goals at the start of the levels. There are two difficulty levels of play, Easy and Normal. In Easy mode, lives can’t be lost and there are less items to collect.

Visually, the game looks great and the locations and Barbie characters are colorful and brightly drawn in pastel colors. The characters are animated nicely and move smoothly throughout the levels. The music is catchy enough, and not horribly annoying.

A nice feature is the ability to play against a friend in the multiplayer modes of the four mini-games, which can be played again after players unlock them at the end of the first four worlds. While simple in concept, these games are fun, timed arcade games that will entertain the kids as they race to collect the stars while avoiding hazards.

The developers of Way Forward and the design team of Knowledge
Adventure (of VU Games) have done an excellent job of staying focused on their
target audience of children under the age of ten. The Easy level is easy, and the normal level, although a bit more challenging, is very forgiving in terms of lives. While kids will have to start over at the beginning of each level, the levels are short enough that it’s not a problem. The number of collectables is just right, and the puzzle-like quality to the levels combined with the cooperative play will keep the attention of most young children, while not boring them with too long of a level.

Still, the gameplay itself is fairly mundane, and suffers from a sameness across each level. The extreme ease of play also means the replay value may be limited for older children, as after a level is completed, it’s really easy to remember where everything is. However, as parents know all too well, young children think nothing of experiencing the same thing over and over again, whether it be a book, movie or game.