If you are a parent of a little girl, like I am, chances are that you are familiar with the recent Barbie movie craze. About once a year a new Barbie fairy tale comes out, direct to DVD, followed by an accompanying game. Princess and the Pauper is one of my daughter's favorite movies, and she was more than a little excited to play the PC game version. In fact, so excited, she didn't wait for me to sit down with her to play, and was quickly absorbed in the world of princesses, Barbie, and castles - perfect heaven for most five-year-old girls.
This game takes place right after the Princess and the Pauper movie, as Princess Erika prepares for her royal wedding and coronation. Apparently, Erika doesn't have any really useful staff on hand, even though she's a princess, so she has to go around and do all the manual labor to get ready. (It seems she lives in a very progressive kingdom.) The player moves through a linear series of quests, exploring the game world and performing specific tasks to help prepare for her blessed day. This includes roaming around the kingdom, talking to your soon-to-be subjects, and collecting and placing items within the castle. By moving an arrow pointer that changes color and shape depending upon the action the player can take, Erika moves from screen to screen, both inside the castle and outside in the kingdom beyond.
Gameplay is pretty straightforward, and resembles those old classic point-and-click adventure games. The game does an excellent job helping small children figure out what to do, and is fairly linear to help keep the player focused on the task at hand. One really nice touch is that what little text that is shown has a little speaker icon next to it to have Barbie speak it to the player. This is a huge help for those kids who are just at the cusp of learning to read, and makes sure they don't get bogged down and bored. Another great concept is the usage of "icon signs" that hang on various locations, so the player can figure out where each path goes. (For example, a golden Castle icon is laid in the path back to the Castle, a cross hatch stained glass icon points to the stained glass window crafter, and so on.) This, along with voice prompting from Erika helps young children grasp immediately where they need to go to get the next job done.
Finally, the game does a good job keeping the player "contained" in an area until they get past the initial missions, to help them learn about the game world gradually. At the start of the game, a royal servant discreetly blocks the path out of the castle, so the player focuses her search within the Castle. Later, a herd of sheep block a crossroads path, to keep the player from going the wrong way when visiting the stained glass merchant. This is a far cry better than just simply not letting an inquisitive child go through a particular door, and the kids seem to just accept the obstruction and move on.
Another great feature is the continuous and automatic save. Kids do all sorts of "bad things" to computers - like just shutting them off, or closing the game with no warning. The designers definitely have children, because the game features no "save" option and no "save gates" of any kind. If you quit the game, Princess Erika will be waiting exactly where you left off. This makes the game very easy to put down and pick back up again - and doesn't force the child to start over again and again.
The game's graphics are very nice for a kids' game, with beautiful backgrounds and thoughtfully designed settings. All characters are sprite based, with a hint of 3D, and only move back and forth. (In other words, there is no frustration for a child trying to get to an item by having to move forward or backward, which is a good thing.) Music and sound effects are on par with most games in this genre. Having all of the text and dialog spoken is a big win here, as it makes the game more accessible to younger children. Movement and picking up items doesn't take much in the way of coordination either - so I'd probably wager that this game would be fun for most kids aged 3 to 6. Two year olds would probably like doing it from your lap - if only to click on things to see what happens.
All of this culminates in a game that is extremely accessible to its target audience. I installed the game for my daughter, then told her that I would help her play it later and teach her how it worked. Coming back an hour later, she had already figured the game out and was deep into the quests. A few days later, she excitedly ran to me and gushed, "I beat the game, daddy! I won!" then immediately ran back to play it all over again. While preparing for this review, she showed genuine frustration with me, the game playing parent, because I wasn't doing the game right, or was being too slow. You know you are getting old when your five year old starts sighing next to you and says "No dad. Don't go that way. Go over there. over there!!!" It's only a matter of time, I think, until I no longer hold the game champion title in our household.
My daughter's recommendation is: "Little girls would like it if they like princesses." I second that verdict, as the game is just right for young fans of princesses or Barbie who want a game that they can play on their own. My advice would be to get the game, and then just let them explore without much of your help. Chances are, you'll be surprised and they'll probably beat the game without your help - and do it a lot faster than you ever could.
Dave lives with his wife and three kids, doing independant software development consulting and fits games in every nook and cranny of his free time. He particularly enjoys seeing new and fresh ideas from the Indie Game Studios, and believes that they are the true future of gaming. He'll play just about anything if you put it in front of him, and usually like about two thirds of it. He's also an "0ld Sk00l" gamer, having cut his teeth on Adventure, the Vic-20, Apple II and Infocom. Back when playing a new game meant you had to type the program in from a Family Computing magazine, during a snowstorm, up a hill, both ways.
