Remember those little pencil toppers you used to have in school that were a bunch of hair? The ones that when you spun them really fast in your hands the hair would go flying out everywhere? Well those things are what seem to have been the inspiration behind Trollz dollz, and now those dolls are featured in a GBA game, Trollz Hair Affair. When we first got this game, my daughter and I were rather luke-warm about playing it. She wasn't a Trollz doll fan and didn't really know anything about them. Thankfully after playing for a little while, she came to realize that Trollz are much like Bratz with magic, so she quickly became interested in the storyline of the game.The game is pretty easy to describe, actually. It is a storyline game where mini-puzzle games are interspersed through the telling of the story in order to give you something to do. The story is about five Trollz friends all named after gems: Amethyst, Topaz, Sapphire, Ruby and Onyz. The little Trollz boys have been accused of cheating and are going to be sent to military school if they can't be proven innocent. This plot was created by the the bad guy of the game in hopes of stealing the Trollz girls' magic. Not the most engaging of storylines from my point of view, but my daughter had fun playing through it to see the story develop. I think she mostly liked the way the Trollz girls talked, using the sort of language that I'd call “pre-adolescent Valley Girl”. (And if you know what I mean by that, you're getting old too, so you can't pick on me about it!!)
The next game is like “Memory”. You match cards to find power-ups and clear the board. The twist on this particular version of the game is that cards will still drop down from the top as you play, and if you uncover Snarf or Simon (the bad guys of the game that I mentioned earlier) without finding the matching card, then the cards are shuffled up. I actually like this, it makes what is usually a pretty easy game much more challenging. It turns in to a mixture of luck and skill combined to clear the game board, in other words.
My own personal favorite is the Spell Beadz game. You're shooting spell beadz at rows of other beads trying to make matches. The spell beadz attatch themselves when they land, and if they are touching two matching beadz, they will disappear. You can really employ strategy in this game if you're careful, because if you detatch a group of beadz not only do the three you matched fall, but the ones dependant on it fall as well. And good use of power-ups in this game can really save the game. It isn't the easiest of the games by far, but it isn't the hardest either, and I think that's why I like it most.
Flying Spell is my the most boring of the mini-games because it is so easy. You just have to move Amethyst up, down, back and forth avoiding various flying enemies until she reaches the finish line. If you've ever played the fad-game “ Downhill Santa”, then you know exactly what this game is, though it is played out horizontally rather than vertically. There just isn't much challenge to this game, at least not at the times I've played it.
Trollz Dance is my least favorite game of them all, and my daughter happens to agree with me. I will get back to her opinion in a moment, though. This game is one of those dance games, only for your fingers. Even on easy level it is HARD. First, the music doesn't match the rhythm. If you're used to playing dance games, with either feet or fingers, you know that one of the things that makes them easier is if you have a good rhythm to play to. The second is that there are many times when you have to hit two keys at the same time. This isn't too bad if it is a direction key and the “A” button, but if it is two directions in rapid succession, you'll find yourself just button mashing with your left hand and hope you surive. Not much fun, in other words.
In all of the mini-games there are BFFL (Best Friends for Life) powerups from the other Trolls that will help you in the level. These vary by game, but are pretty typical for the game you're playing. For example, in the card match game you have a power-up that will reveal one card, a different one that lets you automatically find the match, and another that lets you select a card you haven't flipped yet and automatically find the match for it.
The fun really comes in after you've completed storymode, though, or if you just go to play in the “Boom Room”. Here you can play the various mini-games trying to reach a certain high score to unlock Trollz.com codes and earn trollars. You'll have to register on the website, so you'll need a valid email address, but once you do you can enter codes as you earn them. Now I can't tell you too much about this and what it really means because, though I registered, I could never successfully enter a code. I unlocked a few, but every code I entered told me it was invalid.
It's a GBA game, so the graphics and sound are pretty basic. Nothing out of the ordinary for a GBA game, but nothing so bad that they are worth mentioning either. There are, of course, a LOT of cut scenes with this game because they tell the story, and what does impress me is the number of backgrounds that they've used in these scenes. There really is a little world packed in to this tiny cartridge, or at least you can imagine there is. I've seen too many GBA games where the quality of the graphics makes it difficult to play, to really see what you're doing on the screen. Thankfully that is not a problem with Trollz Hair Affair. They didn't put so much on the actual game screen that it is busy and distracting, and even my aging eyes are able to focus on the screen well enough to play for probably way too long.
Ok, so I've confessed that I like playing this game that probably was designed for kids, so what do my kids think of it? Well, my daughter really likes it. She's only 8, so getting her to tell why she likes the game is rather... well... challenging, but not because she doesn't really like the game. (She doesn't like talking to her suddenly “not cool” mommy.) Of course, her favorite game is the Flying Spell game because Amethyst is the coolest Troll of all. And she spends as much time dressing and redressing her Trollz in the Profiles screen as she does playing the game some days, but really what matters is that she's entertained. She likes the music, her feet and legs 'dance' a bit while she plays the game, in fact. It does get repetative after a while, with about the same 30 seconds of music repeating often in whatever game you're playing, but this too is typical of GBA games. After all, there is only so much room on those little cartridges.
The game earns a two thumbs up from this family, with one thumb being mom's and the other being my daughter's. She likes it for the story, the characters and then the mini-games. I like it for the mini-games. As our only issues with the game were when we tried to go online and play with those features, I really can't complain. The game stands up well enough on its own that it really doesn't need to have an outside reward for playing. So whether your child is a Trollz fan or not, Trollz Hair Affair is a cute, fun, easy to play but hard to master, game that should keep them busy for many hours. It has in our house.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
TROLLZ IS AWSOME. MY FAVOURITE TROLL IS ONYX. I'VE SEEN EVERY EPISODE. I THINK SNARF IS ADORABLE. SIMONS UGLY BUT KINDA CUTE ASWELL
OH YEAH! my favourite episode of trollz is "new girl in town". it's so funny and i think simon is gay. preety obvious
I LOVE TROLLZ. THE HAIR THEY HAVE IS SO COOL.