Bruce Von Stiers

Some gaming companies are recognizing that girls like to play games too. But some still like to play with dolls, especially Barbie. One company, Vivendi Universal Publishing, has put together the best of both those worlds for girls. They have released a title for Game Boy Advance that features Barbie. The title of this game is Barbie Groovy Games.

This game is actually a collection of nine different games of strategy and agility. Each game can be played in either one-player or two-player mode. The age group for playing Groovy Games is 5 and up.

Each game takes place at a different location. The Tic-Tac-Toe game is at the Park and you will play Daisy Derby at the Toy Store. The player can choose to be Barbie or one of her six friends. These people are Teresa, Lea, Ken, Kayla, Becky and Christie. There are three levels of difficulty; Easy, Medium and Hard.

The interface is the inside of a car. You are looking out past the dashboard into the city. Use the control pad arrows to steer towards a location. Once at the location, you can choose the difficulty level and either learn how to play the game or go ahead and get started playing.

D.J Booth is a game that takes place at the music store. A bunch of CD’s have gotten mixed up. It is up to you to put the cases and CD’s back together again. There are special wildcard characters in the game to make it a little more interesting.

The Ice Cream Parlor is the setting for Four Scoops. The object of this game is to get four scoops of the same flavor of ice creams in a row, either vertically or horizontally Tic-Tac-Toe is played with flower tops and butterflies in the park. Have fun at the hair salon by getting three of the same color bubbles together so they will pop in the Bubble Machine game.

Other games include Conga Line, which has your dance line get as long as it can without banging into walls or other obstacles. Daisy Derby, Groove and Move and Bubble Machine are all two player games.

Groovy Games isn’t meant to be mind bending or too intense. It was designed for an opportunity to play some strategy games that were geared towards young girls. By adult standards, these games are pretty lame. But for a young girl who is really into all things Barbie, this is a game that shouldn’t be missed.

Look for Barbie Groovy Games wherever Game Boy Advance titles are sold. You might want to check out other Barbie games at www.barbie.com. The folks at Vivendi Universal also have other games that might be of interest. Check out their web site at www.VUGames.com.