Bruce Von Stiers

A terrible criminal mastermind it going around the world stealing jewels. Only one super secret agent can stop this dastardly villain. Who is this agent? Why, Barbie of course. This is the premise for a new Game Boy Advance game that has been released by Vivendi Universal Games. The title of this game is Secret Agent Barbie: Royal Jewels Mission.

There are four exotic locations that Barbie must travel to in the game to stop this international thief. They are Italy, Mexico, China and England. Each location has a series of mini games that must be completed before moving on to another place. There is a mission screen that must be paid close attention to. Barbie must go to the countries in the correct order or the game cannot be won.

Barbie has a secret agent team that works behind the scenes. They help coordinate the mission and store things in the Secret Vault that Barbie picks up along the way. Things that are lying around that Barbie can put in the Secret Vault include jet skis and scuba gear. Barbie also has a PDA with her at all times to keep in contact with Headquarters and on top of things.

What secret agent would be any good without some gadgets? Barbie has a stealth ring to make her invisible at the right times and a smoke screen compact that does, well the name explains it all. There are nasty security robots at various places in the game that Barbie must avoid. Maybe she could use the smoke screen compact against one of them.

Some of the actions that the player can have Barbie do are run, jump, climb, hide, use a gadget and do a dive roll. Each of these actions requires using either a button or directional arrow on the game console.

As scrolling platforms games go, this one is not too challenging. But then again, this game isn’t meant for those boys who want to blast everything in sight. This is for girls to have fun with Barbie while playing an adventure game.

Barbie Secret Agent Royal Jewels Mission is fun for young girls who are really into Barbie. It won’t be challenging enough for some players and too cutesy for others. But if a parent wanted an adventure game that their daughter could play on a Game Boy Advance, then this is one to grab hold of.

This game can be found at retailers like Best Buy and Toys ‘R Us.

For additional information about this game, visit the Barbie web site at www.barbie.com. You might also want to check out the Vivendi Universal web site as well. It can be found at www.VUGames.com.