Princess Debut (Rated E for Everyone)

Princess Debut -- Rated E for Everyone with no restrictions or cautions.

Welcome to the world of Princess Debut, only for the Nintendo DS. You get to play as a girl (you can choose her name and sign, but it will default to Sabrina.) who wishes her life were a bit more like a fairy tale. Low and behold she's whisked away into a magical land of Princesses and Princes via her wardrobe (Hey, C.S. Lewis wants his Idea back!) and she wakes up in a land where everyone knows how to dance. EVERYONE!! (except for the princess who you're taking the place of, apparently she secretly sucks.) SO. What kind of game is this? Who is it for? This game is a bit of a mix of a dating simulation (as you are looking for a dance partner) and a dancing game. Wait. I hear you saying it... "Dancing game? how do you dance in a game? I don't get it." Well during your tutorial period where they teach you 'how' to dance in the game you learn you follow a ball on the touch screen. Pretty easy right? Well I have to say the waltz is pretty straight forward, but as you learn more and more dances it gets harder and harder. You also might be saying "Dating sim? What is that? That sounds just plain wrong!!" Well, it isn't. I love dating sims, so few of them are ported to America since so many of the Japanese dating sims are dirty... but push that far from your mind, this is on par with most 2nd grade crushes. You meet five princes and you get to talk and go on "dates" with them (most of the dates are walks to various locations on the game's map. It's really very vanilla. In fact, it really teaches you manners. You can be rude to people and say horrible mean things, or you can be nice. I made an effort in my playing to be nice as possible to all the characters, but two of the princes made it quite hard, as my reflex response to some of their actions was anger. Like one of the princes gives you a present. I got all excited, like a School Girl and opened it, and found it was worms. What a jerk. Anyway. I told him so, an example of being impolite.

The game was fun, but for me quickly lost it's shine. After you get a partner you can't switch, something I didn't realize, so I was stuck with my unideal dance partner. I wanted one Prince, but got another through error. So I started over. The game doesn't really raise any issues, maybe you want to chat with your kids about being polite and why it's a good thing to be nice to people even when they're mean to you. I'll admit this is a girl game. It's just as girly as buying your daughter Barbie's Horse Adventure... but I would consider this game more fun than that kind of game. I would say before playing this game your child should be able to read well, and should have fairly good motor coordination. (IE, if needed they can stay inside the lines on a maze, which is kind of like the dancing) I really recommend this game. It's fun to pretend you're a princess. Oh, Also, Sound is needed for this game (You need to hear the music) so either invest in earbuds, or have your kids play in another room if the sound grates on your nerves.

<3/Video Game Momma