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Home >
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> Results: Unfabulous
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by Michael Anderson
December 10, 2006
Not fabulous, but not bad either!
Reviewed for GBA.
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Scroll down for our Kid Factor.
Naming your game Unfabulous seems like a bad idea, sort of like naming your new computer operating system ﾑinstability'. But when it is a tie-in to a hit Nickelodeon show, it's all good.
The game is essentially a series of mini-games cobbled into a story by stringing together a bunch of ﾑfetch' quests. That isn't as bad as it sounds ﾖ the quests are simple but work within the context of advancing the plot: you have to do things like gather markers, tape and paper to make posters for your party. Then the mini-game comes in as you have to avoid the wheelchair-bound principal as you try to hang them. The mini-games are much more fun than running through overly-long corridors and classrooms ﾖ especially the arcade games. There is a separate arcade section available from the beginning with a number of mini-games to play.
My biggest complaints are the presentation and save system. The game started dark and sounded muffled, which I attributed to the dance party scene in the opening. But the same bland graphical quality remained throughout ﾖ and for a show that features an aspiring singer/songwriter the music track is uninspired and repetitive. The save system was the familiar ﾑsave code' system, where you get four faces to remember ﾖ and the way it is presented makes it likely that young kids will just turn the game off without remembering to write them down. Not having built-in saves is just lazy. And while this was a fun little game, much of it felt cobbled together ﾖ like there is a ﾑlicensed show' game factory where they cut-and-paste elements together with a few new graphics to come up with something that is relatively fun but derivative of every other licensed show game made.
The show Unfabulous is targeted a very specific group ﾖ ﾑtween' girls. The themes here are the basis of the show ﾖ coping with being a twelve year old girl who has life pretty good, but is definitely not part of the in-crowd. She has to work out differences with friends, resolve to work as a team with girls she normally butts heads with, and figure out how to restore her damaged rep! The game has some positive themes ﾖ stick with your friends, teamwork is better than competition, and keep working at things even though they get tough. In the end, Addie has a life that isn't too bad ﾖ she seems to mess up a lot, but in the end she resolves issues, tightens bonds, wins the contest, gets the cool band and gets the boy. Not bad for someone with an ﾑUnfabulous' life!
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