I wanted to play Pretty in Pink since I thought it would be some John Hughes nostalgia from my youth. It was a nice plan, except it turns out that I've never watched Pretty in Pink. I was thinking of Sixteen Candles and wondering why the game was so weird compared to what I was expecting. Now I know. It's me. Thanks to the internet, I know how the actual movie played out.

Pretty in Pink is a hybrid game. It combines find the hidden object levels with other puzzle levels while basically following along the major plot points of the Pretty in Pink movie as cartoon cut scenes. As such, between puzzles, there is much teen angst. I hear that some people have nostalgia about high school and have fond memories of prom. I was the weird kid that didn't fit into any of the cliques (even the ones for the weird kids) and didn't go to prom.

As far as I can tell from my internet research, the game is actually pretty faithful to the flow of the movie. It seems to hit the major incidents and does them pretty accurately. The one thing the game does differently on purpose is that you can pick an alternate ending, so we'll just see who gets the girl this time around. In each of the hidden object scenes, you'll find little sports cars and rubber ducks. You'll want to collect these as they'll come into play when you finally reach the prom. You'll also be collecting a mystery object on each of these levels – which starts out as a blurry outline – to contribute to Andie's ultimate prom dress.

There's a nice variety of other games between the standard hidden object stuff. There are a few matching games where you match by color/style, clean/dirty, old/new, etc. There are a few logic based cooking games where you need to put five or six things together in the correct order to make the recipe. There are a few variations of comparing two pictures side by side. Sometimes you're marking differences and sometimes you're adding things to the pictures to make them match. There are a few puzzles to be assembled and some pictures to create by swapping pieces.

The other game within a game is the creation of Andie's prom ensemble. As you find pieces of prom gear in the hidden object levels, you unlock other parts of Andie's ultimate prom dress. You'll actually be designing her look in a fair amount of detail. You choose top, skirt, sleeve, collar, shoes, hand-bag and jewelry style from up to nine choices in each category. You also have six color choices in most categories. When you see the Sketchbook option between levels, you get to go play with the outfit. I hate to admit it, but I really got a kick out of this part. I enjoyed playing with the different choices to come up with completely different looks.

The music was kind of a generic 80s soundtrack. After a while it faded into the background for me and I didn't really notice it either way. You do get little ‘quacks' when you collect the rubber ducks and ‘honks' (really sad little honks considering it's supposed to be a race car) when you collect the toy race cars.

The graphics were not bad. Some of the backgrounds looked like photographs while most others were more comic style. All of the story cut-scenes are comic style. They worked well enough with the needs of the game. I haven't seen the movie so I can't argue either way how well the comic version of the character captures the actor from the movie.

I did have a few gripes with the game. When you're doing the matching game, I felt like the speed was way too slow. There was lag turning over the images, lag having a pair accepted as a match, and lag resetting so you could select another pair. When you use the hint function, it highlights exactly the item and is not on screen very long at all. If you're looking at the wrong area of the screen, you can definitely miss it. In the game where you place items to make the two scenes match, it was very sensitive about you getting the item in exactly the right place. Sometimes it took three or four times to get it to take and I felt like I was on the right spot every time. While these were minor annoyances, none of them were things I'd consider deal-breakers.

On the plus side, there are multiple save game slots. I really enjoyed the variety of other games included beyond the hidden object part – and they were really well integrated. The logic puzzles are carrying out recipes – either cooking breakfast or mixing punch at a party. The assembling puzzles are done in the guise of clarifying one of the character's understandings of a situation. They forward the story rather than just killing time. I loved getting to design the prom outfit. Digital paper dolls can be a kick. And finally, I'm glad I had the choice as to who Andie would choose in the end.

Pretty in Pink wasn't a super long game, but it felt about right for the story being played. It's definitely designed to appeal to girls – most of the story is from Andie's perspective and designing the prom dress definitely feels girly (not to diss all the great male fashion designers out there). I think it would enhance your enjoyment of the game if you had seen the movie, but it doesn't take anything away from it if you haven't. I think a hard core gamer would find Pretty in Pink too easy, but that's not where it's aimed. I think the casual gamer will find Pretty in Pink both fun and occasionally challenging without being too hard. All in all, I had fun playing the game – and that's what it's all about.