When I was younger, I had a diary and wrote all my poetry and secrets in it. What I didn’t know was that my mom also read it, and when her eyes came across the entry about losing my virginity, she packed me off to a camp for troubled youth. Diary Girl wasn’t around back then to save me from a wasted summer, but you can rest assured that your secrets are safe inside this game.
There really is no story to tell. Diary Girl is a journal on steroids — complete with calendar, single and multiplayer games, an address book, personalization options, and a monthly horoscope. Holding the Nintendo DS like a book, you use the stylus to navigate through the game. Don’t worry, lefties! By visiting the game options, you can adjust the screens to fit your southpaw. The right side of the DS is where you make all of your selections, and the left side is where the images alternate between your personal avatar, time limit and score.
Turn on Diary Girl for the first time, and prompts for personal information — including your name, nickname, favorite color and favorite food — appear. You also enter a password. This secret code is required each time you return to your diary. Take that, Mom!
After getting past all the “paperwork,” you may explore each of the four different sections found in the game. The Journal tab is where you stash your secrets and create reminders on your calendar. Visiting the horoscope shines light on your general month to come and offers hints about your love life. Younger girls should enjoy learning their and their friends’ fates. The readings are more fun than foresight, however. The advice I got was to stop giggling insanely around guys. Apparently they hate that. The Chat tab allows you to socialize with fellow gamers on a Nintendo Wi-Fi connection or through wireless play. The catch is that each of your friends must have an established friend code.
My favorite part of the game and perhaps the most engaging is the Games tab. Five challenges, including Match It, Two of a Kind, Mix Up, Touch Rhythm and Quiz Time, are available for play on three levels of difficulty. Getting through the easy and intermediate challenges was a breeze, and I finished them all in a couple of hours. The third setting, however, is harder to slam through and took me another evening to finish. Overall, the gaming side of Diary Girl leaves much to be desired.
The final tab is My Room, a place where you can customize the look of your diary and that friendly avatar. All of my personal journals have stickers and random doodles that define my mysteries, so why should Diary Girl be any different? Personalizing the cover involves selecting a specific background color and pattern. You can add more individual flair by using stickers. My cover is green with a purple butterfly print and a star sticker. It rawks.
My Room is the place to store address information and to create a personal avatar for you and each of your registered friends. This digital version of dress-up features a healthy palate of customization options, and you can adjust the colors of each piece of clothing as well as the skin tone, hairstyle and poise of your little you. In the beginning, you only have a few options, but playing through each area of the game unlocks new accessories, games, clothing, hairstyles and shoes.
Diary Girl kept me mildly entertained, but after completing each activity and unlocking all the extra goodies, I don’t see much reason to keep it around. Its true value is in the organizational capabilities. The address book can come in handy to store information you don’t use everyday, but pulling out the game, turning it on and accessing the correct information seems like a waste of time when all I have to do is open my planner. Writing a lengthy journal entry may be a little tedious, as you must use the stylus to select keys on a tiny keyboard. Each entry is limited to 300 characters — less than half of this paragraph. Furthermore, unless you carry the game constantly, it becomes impractical when exchanging information on the fly.
I wouldn’t buy this game for myself, but I might consider it for my adolescent cousin. Diary Girl is perfect for that group of confused tweenage girls looking for independence and self-expression. Preteens and teenagers can use the game to stay organized and jot down private thoughts. If you want gameplay, you should look elsewhere.
