What? Girly? I don’t even. You may be thinking along those lines, but you may be a bit stuck for that last stocking filler for a daughter, niece, aunty, mum, nan, girlfriend, all of the above? It could just be the ideal game to get to go with a youg’uns new Wii… or maybe not.
Being the fairly macho male that I am, having a couple of daughters to do my bidding.. I mean, playing of titles such as this is rather beneficial, but while one wanted to play it again, the other preferred to go back to Littlest Pet Shop. Being a devout Barbie fan with a lot of patience is what you will need to be if you’re going to play this for more than a day.
Barbie Groom and Glam Pups could be better. It’s not graphically great and that’s not entirely the fault of the Wii and it’s limitations, looking at the choice of dogs at the start and you’re instantly drawn (if not, why not?) to the Pomeranian and it’s epic cuteness, only to be disappointed in its lack of long, soft fur which instead, looks like the plastic toy you would buy in the shops. That said, a few of the dogs do look a little ‘hairy’, you can almost count the polygons on the eyebrows on most of them though.
Once you have chosen your dog out of the intial two, (the other being a Samoyed… whatever that is) you have a choice of dressing it up in the usual garb like t-shirts, hats and sunglasses of various shapes, what would have been nicer is if the boutique was brighter for you to see the items on the dog better, regardless of being able to change the angle of the view.
Since the animals are pets, you need to train them and this is where things get quite tedious due to the lengthy process of telling the dog what to do, the dog performing the request, giving the dog a treat in praise, telling the dog what to do, the perfo… you get the idea. It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t take so long to teach the dog how to do the trick until it’s fully learnt, but we’re talking over repetitiveness in a bid to eke out as much gameplay as possible.
If only loading times were quicker and not take up to 30 seconds for what is a very small amount of data compared to vast areas of planets on other platforms that take about the same amount of time, if not less. A game such as this had so much potential and as much as I hate to say it, maybe a Paris Hilton Animal Boutique game might be more appealing.
With the catwalk section entailing of setting up a routine of learned tricks, the only interaction is a flick of the Wiimote now and then to get your animal to perform and earn cash of which to buy more accessories of which there is a rather extensive collection of stuff.
It’s just a pity that a lot of little girls will probably get bored after a couple of hours and only the easily impressed will endeavour this latest Barbie title.
