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Gaming Pathology

Gaming Pathology

Piles Of Games, Copious Free Time, No Standards

Category: Windows Games

Wealth of Casual Games

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

What is a casual game? Generally, it’s a game that has a fairly simple central concept — say, rotating falling blocks in order to form solid lines as in Tetris — which is easy to comprehend yet can keep a player occupied for hours, days, or however much free time happens to be available. There are a number of popular casual game concepts that float about and any halfway talented programmer can slam together their own version of one (I understand that the iPhone is seeing a lot of this very phenomenon right now).

But what makes a premium casual game? My first brush with the concept came from Magic Match last year which specifically bills itself as such. I liked the game so much, as did a close friend of mine, that I sought out more games under MumboJumbo’s “Casual Premium Games” brand. I found a 6-pack of such games for $20 on Amazon which arrived in the following, decidedly shipping-unfriendly packaging:


MumboJumbo 6-pack
Click for a larger image

In fact, I hesitated to touch any of the games for a good while because I was still debating how best to scan the whole package for MobyGames. I finally settled on a solution and was free to start playing, which I did, and that was several months ago. Why haven’t I gotten around to writing them up yet? Because I have enjoyed playing them so much that I would rather play them than write things about them.

So, again, what defines a premium casual game above and beyond a standard casual game? The premium flavor takes the simple concept and spruces it up in the graphics, animation, sound, music, storyline, and gameplay dynamic departments. The first 4 items of that list, pertaining to video and audio, should be pretty straightforward to comprehend. As for storyline, most of these games attempt to have some sort of plot to justify the progression of levels, even though each level is the same basic game over and over again. The game tries to give the player a feeling of progression. Finally, these premium titles usually throw in assorted value-adds to the gameplay — and typically hold the player’s hand while introducing them — in order to give the player a few more characteristics about the game to master.

The first game I’d like to discuss is called 7 Wonders of the Ancient World and it’s easily mine and my friend’s very favorite of the lot. For the past few months, I have been telling everyone who will listen how awesome this game is and how often I’ve been playing it. Then I describe the gameplay and they shrug, wondering what’s so remarkable about the game — the concept has been around for years.

I guess you just have to be there…


7 Wonders of the Ancient World -- Gameplay

According to MobyGames, 7 Wonders is categorized as a tile matching (creation) puzzle game and it presently lists 138 games of the type. It’s simple enough– you swap adjacent pairs of symbols in order to complete strings of 3 symbols. In this variation, there are 7 stages corresponding to the 7 wonders of the ancient world, and each has 7 levels. Your job is to build them by supplying enough bricks for the cheerful, driven workers down below. The value-adds, gameplay-wise, are that destroying strings of symbols also destroys blocks that they are sitting on, which is the raw building material for the wonders. After enough blocks are destroyed, the game drops a cornerstone piece into the puzzle that the player must navigate down to the bottom where the workers can use it. And of course, the hourglass is ticking through all of this.

Naturally, there are a number of powerups (horizontal and horizontal/vertical fireballs which destroy all symbols on their rows/columns; stars that randomly destroy symbols) to keep the gameplay a little more varied. It’s amazing how much strategy you can develop for even the simplest games. In the level shown above, for example, I would identify the top 4 rows as the “pain points”, the areas that would be the toughest to clear. I made sure to focus on those at the start of each turn and worry about the remainder of the puzzle as a secondary concern. After all, fireball powerups would naturally descend, and those often serve as wildcards during the endgame.

The second game I tried from the 6-pack was Jewel Quest. It’s strange to think that if I had tried this game before I had played 7 Wonders, I might have been gushing about this one instead. As it stands, this one struck me as unremarkable since it was the same type of game as the first. Not a knock; I just enjoyed 7 Wonders a bit more.

Then there was Luxor which was confusingly packaged as Luxor 2 (Luxor 2 on the outside, but a CD-ROM plainly marked Luxor on the inside). I don’t know which it was supposed to be, but I hardly suspect it makes a big difference. These both fall into a casual game category called Puzz Loop variants. The idea here is that some force is pushing a bunch of multi-colored jewels/marbles/stones towards an end destination. The player must fire colored orbs into the chain in order to create chains of 3 or more of the same color and destroy them before any balls reach the end destination.

So Luxor is the second game of the 6-pack that I fell in love with. I didn’t think I would get so involved until I played for 4+ hours straight one night, only retiring at 2am. Of course, there are tons of powerups to help you destroy the balls, and the game throws some fiendish courses right back at you to ramp up the difficulty. Oh, the strategies you will assess.

I hit a real slump with Mystery Solitaire: Secret Island. I had to give it the old college try for the sake of a MobyGames entry but I just don’t have any interest in solitaire card games. In fact, this might be the first computer solitaire card game I have ever played. I remember playing solitaire card games as a kid and I seem to recall that I didn’t enjoy it very much. Maybe that helps to explain my quest at a young age to find computer games — any computer games — to play.


Mystery Solitaire -- Secret Island

It seems that all I’m doing is matching pairs of cards until all the pairs are matched. Then the game allows me to progress to another island (trying to keep some kind of tenuous story arc). To it’s credit, the game lives up to its premium casual game branding in terms of audio, graphics, story progression, and gameplay. But this is still the most pointless of all the games in this pack.

Having said that about card solitaire, it’s odd that I should enjoy Mah Jong Quest. I remember playing Mahjongg — real, physical, multiplayer Mahjongg — when I was growing up, and I remember seeing many people playing solitaire Mahjongg games on various computer systems as far back as the DOS days. But I have never played a solitaire Mahjongg computer game. It doesn’t sound like it would be too interesting — just matching pairs of tiles.

But danged if it didn’t keep me coming back for more, night after night.


Mah Jong Quest -- Bricked Eagle board

Now this game has a real storyline. Young Kwazi is peacefully playing with his Mahjongg tiles when his village is ravaged by demons. Kwazi must embark on a quest throughout the lands to defeat the demons while meeting and helping a lot of people along the way. And he accomplishes everything by… playing with his Mahjongg tiles. That’s powerful stuff.

So how is this so different than card solitaire if they’re both pair matching games? I’m not sure exactly. Perhaps it’s the fact that I can see all (or many) of the tiles up front. That can help me plan moves. Plus, I can’t just take any tiles; there are certain constraints (a tile can’t be paired if both sides are touching other tiles, or if another tile is stacked on top of it). Somehow, I can imagine an upgraded version of this concept being the first casual game created for the emerging 3D monitors. Depth perception helps.

There’s one more game in the pack and it’s probably the least intuitive of the bunch — Slingo Quest. Slingo, it turns out, is a combination of slot machines and Bingo. You spin the slots that occur below each column of a Bingo card and mark off numbers as they come up. I’ll be the first to admit that it sounded totally uninteresting.

And I’ll also be the first to admit that it had me playing for hours on end the first time I booted it up for a review.


Slingo Quest gameplay

Again, I can’t believe how much I obsessed over optimal strategy when I played this game, or how far I managed to get (and wanted to get).

See Also:

  • Magic Match

At MobyGames:

  • 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
  • Jewel Quest
  • Luxor
  • Mah Jong Quest
  • Mystery Solitaire: Secret Island
  • Slingo Quest
Posted in Puzzle Games Windows Games | 4 Comments

Tracer

Posted on May 30, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

I recently hunted down the 1996 CD-ROM title Tracer after I found it mentioned in passing in one of my old multimedia exploration journal entries and noticed that it wasn’t in MobyGames. I haven’t read so much inane, incomprehensible cyber-pap to describe how to play a cyberspace-themed game since Forbes: Corporate Warrior. And when I tried to run one of the 4 accompanying tutorial programs, I wasn’t sure if this message screen was just part of the gimmick:


Tracer -- Error Initializing

I mean “Tracer” is supposed to be the name of a dreaded computer virus that can kill a hacker like you, so this might be part of the narrative setup. The year is 2023 and you’re a successful, mercenary hacker, highly reputed in the underground for being able to destroy entire multi-national corporations by sabotaging their computer systems. You do this by entering cyberspace somehow and use a series of code pads in order to forge paths to the data core. After you tap into this latest assignment, your coach/agent/guide artificial intelligence (AI) warns you that this job is a setup and that there is a killer virus on your tail.

It was rather frustrating to keep up with all the jargon in the manual describing navigating through cyberspace. As someone who is well familiar with computer hardware and software, I should probably just “go with it”.


Tracer -- gameplay

It’s a fortunate thing that I was able to let go and roll with it because I have to tell you: once I got into this game and figured out the gameplay, I discovered one very good game. Not a great game, but a very fun one, nonetheless, and one that immediately earns a spot on my “good” list.

What we have here is essentially a fast-paced 3D puzzle game. You are standing in a large grid. You have to put down code pads on an adjacent square in order to move to that square. You have up to 10 code pads which are shown at the bottom of the screen. Each code pad has 4 sides, each of which has a color (red, green, blue, or magenta). Adjoining sides must have the same color. It’s a bit confusing until you jump into it. But you don’t have much time to think about it because the Tracer virus is constantly pursuing you, consuming the code paths that you have already laid down. You must build code paths to areas of the grid that contain refills on code paths as well as a few more items (a magnetic pad slows down the virus’ pursuit for a short time), all while trying to forge your way to the exit.


Tracer -- Here comes the Tracer virus

The game boasts 50 levels, plus a level editor. The levels keep throwing more and clever obstacles for you to think your way around. You are able to cycle through your available code pads in order to build the optimal path to your next destination. In practice, that’s incredibly hard to do since the Tracer virus is always closing in so quickly. The game’s tagline, “Think fast… or your next move may be your last!” is absolutely no joke.

I must mention that the soundtrack is definitely up to snuff for the genre. Great electronic/techno music recorded as 5 redbook CD audio tracks, all ripped, all on my iPod now (part of my ever-growing “Game Music” playlist consisting largely of ripped redbook audio tracks). Here is the first track for your approval:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


The game also has personality. I guess what that boils down to is that I appreciated the voice acting. It wasn’t hard to get into the mood of the game with an intro like this, which starts out with an underground radio DJ and winds up with your fast-talking AI agent briefing you on your next job:



Tech support section (where I display problematic error dialogs I encountered and type out their text for the benefit of search engines): I saw a number of curious dialogs when I tried to install Tracer:


Tracer error dialog #1

“Severe: 7th Level Setup: Out of memory. (E9)”


Tracer error dialog #1

“Read Only File Detected: A read only file, .\tracer.txt, was found while attempting to copy files to the destination location. To overwrite the file, click the Yes button, otherwise click the No button.”


Tracer error dialog #1

“Severe: General file transfer error. Please check your target location and try again.

Error Number:-1
Related File: .\TRACER.TXT”

Wouldn’t you know, the standard remedy applied: Using the properties dialog on the SETUP.EXE file on the CD-ROM, set the compatibility mode to Windows 95. That saves many an old game and never ceases to impress me.

See Also:

  • Forbes: Corporate Warrior— business-oriented cyberspace FPS
  • The Lawnmower Man— silly game based on the well-known cyberspace-themed movie

At MobyGames:

  • Tracer

And as a bonus for the game programming geeks (and wannabes like myself), I observed that the directory structure has a directory named ASCILVLS which I surmised means “ASCII levels”. Sure enough– dozens of .TXT files which pretty clearly spell out the initial arrangement of each level. Program a little game logic around them and you could probably reimplement the game. Here is a sample level file:

Read more
Posted in Puzzle Games Windows Games | Tagged cyberspace future puzzle | 5 Comments

M&M’s The Lost Formulas

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

M&M’s The Lost Formulas is a story about corporate mismanagement, wanton workplace hazards, and math. Yes, this is meant to be an educational game focused on math skills. It succeeds in being the harshest math experience I have had since the AP calculus exam in high school.

The red and the yellow candies are all set for their tropical vacation when Red thinks to ask Yellow who is in charge on the candy factory in their absence. Turns out it’s the M&M’s Minis who, to put it gently, are not qualified to perform the task. Yellow is charged with returning to the factory pronto and putting things back in order. The first level has him hopping in his ride and racing back to work.


M&M's The Lost Formulas -- Math driving

The math comes in with math formulas posted on the side of the road. Soon afer, there will be 3 crates on the road. Choose the one with the correct numerical answer and smash through; the crates with the wrong answers are made of steel.

So you’re driving at an uncontrollably automatic high speed (scratch that– it’s possible to manually accelerate in short bursts to even higher speeds) in a car with tenuous steering at best, and then you have to worry about solving math problems in real time or smash up against a steel crate. It’s sort of a “scared straight” style of math instruction. All those math tests in school don’t seem so terrible when compared in this context, now do they?

The first stage driving will feel safe and secure in comparison to the horrors that await you at the candy factory, which fails to adhere to most occupational safety requirements. There is more high-speed driving in later levels (including on a forklift). But several levels are influenced by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Yellow has to solve math problems in order to advance to the next numerical platform and avoid whatever workplace hazard is down below.


M&M's The Lost Formulas -- Platforms over high voltage

Yellow takes a lot of static from Red. Indeed, Yellow’s mannerisms are in keeping with a complete buffoon during the cutscenes. But he is an extraordinarily gifted acrobat as seen during the assorted 3D platform action levels as he effortlessly somersaults to and fro. Certain stages have Yellow on a conveyor belt marching towards a platform with 3 numbered doors. What door holds the correct solution? For this one, you have to be paying attention as you were hauled down the belt. There are various monitors with numbers in a certain pattern. Find the number that fits the sequence.


M&M's The Lost Formulas -- Conveyor belt

It must be noted that The Lost Formulas was developed by an outfit named Boston Animation. Another notable game they have to their record is Darkened Skye, a fantasy game infamous for its tie-in to another popular candy– Skittles. The credits for this game proved nearly pointless to process. While the Simon and Schuster (the publisher) credits were easy enough to understand, when the credits roll down tot he Boston Animation credits, every person gets a photo but most of the names are obfuscated.


M&M's The Lost Formulas -- Credits excerpt

Based on the MobyGames credits for Darkened Skye, I was able to positively identify a few of the photos and submit them to the database for posterity. But I decided against trying to enter the entire set. I don’t quite understand the motivation for this– The Lost Formulas is a fairly decent and well-engineered game, even if it’s a bit traumatizing in the educational department. They shouldn’t want their names stricken from the record over this work.

See Also:

  • Taco Bell Tek Kids series — Taco Bell advergaming tie-in
  • Snow Day: The Gap Kids Quest — One of Gap Kids’ entries into the advergaming genre

At MobyGames:

  • M&M’s The Lost Formulas
  • M&M’s game group
  • Darkened Skye
Posted in Action Games Educational Games Licensed Schlock Mac Games Windows Games | Tagged m&m math | Leave a comment

Barbie Mermaid Adventure

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

Yep, one more. Another Barbie title that I overlooked during my Barbie gaming spree back in January. Honestly, I don’t know why I even bother to keep a spreadsheet of all my games if it can’t even help me keep track. MobyGames needs to have complete information on every Barbie game under the sun, and my sources indicate that we aren’t even close to being done.

So Barbie dons her fins and takes to the water in Barbie Mermaid Adventure. There are minigames aplenty, starting with the cuddlefish game (not to be confused with cuttlefish, at least, that’s what I’m asserting). The goal is to rock them all to sleep. If you pass by one that’s already snoozing, it will wake up. So there’s a little logic at work here.


Barbie Mermaid Adventure -- Cuddlefish game

These Barbie games (and Macromedia Director-based, kid-targeted games in general) are highly formulaic. So here’s the formula for Mermaid Adventure:

  • 3 levels, each of which has:
  • 1 rainbow dolphin
  • 2 minigames
  • 3 musicians

The goal of the game is to prepare the big party. In each of the 3 levels, find the rainbow dolphin. Before you can do that, you must complete the 2 minigames for the level. And while you’re at it, contact each of the 3 musicians jamming in that level.

Here’s another minigame, where it’s necessary to match 8 pairs of fish as they float around:


Barbie Mermaid Adventure -- Matching fish game

This game leaves me undecided about the aquatic doll — she’s either the most easygoing individual ever when faced with enormous stress, or she is a remarkable airhead who doesn’t understand priorities. The opening movie sets up all the problems (complete with all the juicy data I will need for a perfect MobyGames entry, which I managed to furiously transcribe, and I appreciate it was all explained right there in one place): We’re going to have a big party today with a carefully choreographed dance number to live music. But we need to personally invite the 9 musicians so that they can play — we’ll work out the music later. Oh, and the magic shell of light in the theater just broke. And that’s why we need the magical trio of rainbow dolphins — only they can repair it (I wanted to make a comment here about rainbow tuna nets but it’s late and I just can’t figure out a way to make it fit).

And Barbie still has time to spare to cheerfully listen to a clownfish tell silly fish jokes. I wager there are times when Barbie wishes she wasn’t so good with animals.

So while there should be 6 minigames, mathematically, there are actually only 4. There is one unique game per level, but one maze in each which Samika the Seahorse must complete. The goal for each of these mazes is to obtain something else for Barbie to wear at the party. I was a little stunned when I saw these boxer shorts:


Barbie Mermaid Adventure -- Seahorse maze

Barbie assured me the item was actually a necklace. Naturally, there is an activity where you can decorate the necklace as well as earrings and a crown using the seashells collected throughout the adventure. Another non-game activity is to jam with the musicians.

One more minigame, and this one was predictably fun. It’s hard to go wrong with a Breakout clone which is what you must play to, well, save the whale:


Barbie Mermaid Adventure -- Save the whale, Breakout clone

See Also:

  • Barbie as Rapunzel and Barbie Magic Genie Bottle, just to name 2 of the many Barbie games I have put up with for this blog

At MobyGames:

  • Barbie Mermaid Adventure
  • The ever-expanding list of Barbie titles at MobyGames
Posted in Barbie Games Childrens Games Girlie Games Licensed Schlock Windows Games | Tagged barbie mermaid | 2 Comments

Barbie Beach Vacation

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

I do apologize for this brazen oversight — my master spreadsheet claimed that Barbie Beach Vacation already had corresponding screenshots in MobyGames when it clearly does not. That means I have to extend the Barbie coverage another night.

The first thing I notice about Beach Vacation is the different — and dare I say, creepy — art and animation style:


It's Overtly Sinister Barbie! New from Mattel

It's Overtly Sinister Barbie! New from Mattel


I’m a little surprised that Barbie’s appearance varies so widely between the assorted titles in her gaming oeuvre. This is the kind of thing I would expect Mattel to keep tight control over. But maybe only Disney is that strict, which is perhaps why they keep most game development in-house nowadays.

Barbie and her friends hit the beach, apparently one on a remote, private island. As I was jotting down notes to that effect, it dawned on me: Isn’t Barbie’s canon backstory that she lives in Malibu, California? Is it really necessary to cruise to a remote island to catch some rays?

Moving right along, the game is a collection of 7 minigames/activities. Actually, “minigame” pretty well describes all of the components since there are usually very concrete goals and you are basically prohibited from proceeding until you satisfactorily complete the task at hand. Tasks include surfing, water skiing, diving, and photographing marine life.


Barbie Beach Vacation -- Building sand castles to spec

In the foregoing activity, Barbie — and when I say Barbie, I mean you, the player — is tasked with creating sand castles for a sand castle competition. At first, I tried to let my limited creativity flow with the tools at my disposal. That effort was dashed when Barbie kept reminding me that she didn’t think what I was doing was a good idea. You see, on the top of the screen are the components you absolutely must use to create a castle during this round. Look, Barbie, let’s not forget who’s helping whom here. If you tell me exactly what components I need to use in the sand castle, then you’re going to get letter-of-the-law nonsense as shown above so that I can keep the screenshot recon moving.


Barbie's evil friend practices her dance

After winning the grueling multi-round elimination sand castle tournament on the beach, Barbie walks in on her similarly malevolent-looking pal practicing her dance moves for the big party. Barbie dons a new outfit (it’s important to note that Barbie gets to choose from a selection of new outfits prior to embarking on any activity) and practices her own dance. As she shakes it, it is your job to… I’m not sure, something about clicking on the left and right mouse buttons as musical notes move in to assault Barbie.


Barbie Beach Vacation -- Barbie practices her dancing

This minigame baffled me more than perhaps any other game played for this Gaming Pathology effort. But the game was sympathetic to my plight as it chose to just randomly end the dance after awhile.

Then it’s on to plan the big beach party. Choose from 2 locations, a number of hanging decorations, as well as a number of sitting decorations that were hidden in bottles recovered throughout other activities. Decide where to place the DJ and every single one of your friends. Be sure to place Ken near you and not near one of your girlfriends, and press the button to make the party transpire.


Barbie Beach Vacation -- Making the party happen

I have heard the horror tales about brides who try to micromanage every finest detail of their weddings. I think it’s obvious that these women got the idea that such fine-grained control over a party is even possible: they played computer games like this.

Tanned, rested and ready to tackle another wild adventure, Barbie and her friends depart from the island. I can’t be sure, but I think that this crab — an extraneous prop that is generally a filmmaker’s shorthand indicating that the action takes place on a tropical island (see also: scorpion as shorthand for desert) — is actually flipping them the claw.


Barbie Beach Vacation -- Crab flipping them off

See Also:

  • Barbie as Princess Bride
  • Barbie as Rapunzel
  • Barbie as Sleeping Beauty
  • Barbie Magic Genie Bottle
  • Secret Agent Barbie

At MobyGames

  • Barbie’s Beach Vacation
  • Every Barbie game that MobyGames knows about
Posted in Adventure Games Barbie Games Childrens Games Girlie Games Windows Games | Tagged barbie beach island | Leave a comment

Metal Gear Barbie

Posted on January 10, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

You’ll be happy — or saddened, depending on whether you have the same twisted idea of entertainment that I do — to learn that tonight’s game will be the last Barbie game for awhile, until such time that I happen to procure another Barbie game that A) is not yet in MobyGames, or B) is already in the database, but that I genuinely want to play. What?

Yeah, you read that right — unless there’s a Barbie game that I actually care to try my hand at. Tonight’s game — Secret Agent Barbie — already has a very complete record with a good description, diverse set of screenshots, and complete credits. But I admit that I want to see what this is about. After all, I’m a moderate fan of sneaking games like Metal Gear Solid. And after a week of metaphorically eating my vegetables by playing Barbie titles for MobyGames, I hope this tastes like dessert.


It's Sky Diving Secret Agent Barbie! New from Mattel

It's Sky Diving Secret Agent Barbie! New from Mattel; seriously, though, the game implies that Barbie deploys to all of her secret missions via parachute, in broad daylight, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower


As the name implies, Barbie does a stint at an espionage agency. The agency goes unnamed. And they don’t really fight international threats. Mostly, they seem to investigate theft incidents that occur in the world of high fashion. Really, the organization seems more like a private investigator’s office with an extravagant clothing budget.


Secret Agent Barbie -- clothing change

Clothing, you should know, plays a significant role in anything Barbie. This game is no different. Barbie has to change clothes every time she switches into a different game mode. There are 3 such modes — action (where Barbie can run and jump, onto crates, for example), adventure (where Barbie can walk casually and talk to people), and stealth (where Barbie can crouch as she walks and can also do a roll).

Clothing and guards– guards also play a significant role in the game. The game features extensive VR training for all 3 modes in which much of the focus is how to deal with guards. In stealth mode, the player is taught to perform a tumble-roll directly in the guard’s field of vision. Sure enough, he doesn’t notice you. In the adventure/talky mode, the player is instructed to use the makeup compact. After the guard gruffly warns that you are not allowed to pass, take out the compact and blow the contents in the guard’s face. Then casually wander past him. I guarantee that Barbie has never been more reprehensible than when she executes this maneuver.


Secret Agent Barbie -- Giving a guard the compact treatment

But I wanted to give this game the old college try. After the cursory, hand-holding training, the agency receives word that a famous fashion designer has had her designs stolen from the major New York fashion show, apparently held in Central Park. So Barbie ‘chutes in to investigate. The game immediately goes to action/jumping mode. In Central Park. Why?


Yep, crates in a park

Yep, crates in a park


Crates, that’s why. Stacked meters high in central park. Amidst fields whose “keep off grass” signs must be backed with deadly force. Old Man Murray would be proud (see Crate Review System).

So I wandered around the high fashion tent in Central Park and immediately found an invitation to a fashion show in Paris. This meant that Barbie had to go make a trip to that fashion mecca. Which is about the time that the banality thwarted any further interest. Obviously, all the missions are going to be extremely cut & dried– go to this location, avoid guard, find item; go to that location, use gadget, distract guard, find code; keep repeating. I mean, this is is so unlike Metal Gear Solid where Solid Snake is instructed to go to some location, avoid the guards, gather some item; then go to another location, use gadget… wait… ummm… well, at least Solid Snake doesn’t change his outfit all the time… no, wait, in parts 3 and 4, he is constantly changing camouflage as a key aspect of the game.

Look, at least the Metal Gear Solid series has big, cool robots, a feature notably missing from this game… probably. I didn’t really play far enough. Frankly, if this game featured a final fashion contest against a giant fashion robot, I might have to qualify it as being even better than a Metal Gear Solid game.

See Also:

  • Barbie as Princess Bride
  • Barbie as Rapunzel
  • Barbie as Sleeping Beauty
  • Barbie Magic Genie Bottle
  • Barbie Beach Vacation

At MobyGames:

  • Secret Agent Barbie
  • Every Barbie game that MobyGames knows about
  • Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, my personal favorite stealth action game
Posted in Action Games Adventure Games Barbie Games Girlie Games Windows Games | Tagged barbie spy | 6 Comments

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