Barbie (1991 Video Game)
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''Barbie'' is a multi-platform
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
developed by Imagineering for Hi Tech Expressions. It is based on Mattel Inc.'s doll of the same name and was created in an attempt to get more girls to play video games. As such, it is one of the few explicitly girl-oriented NES games. The game takes place in a dream where Barbie must travel through three different worlds (Mall, Underwater and Soda Shop) to gather accessories before attending a
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to meet Ken. Despite it having been of little interest to typical gamers at the time of its release, critics including staff writers for '' Velikij Drakon'' and Allgame have praised it as "not bad" for a generic platformer. Others including Justine Cassell and Nathanael Ng of the
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have advanced the view that its genre is not appropriate for its content.


Plot

Barbie dreams that she has been invited to the Fantasy Ball, but in her dream she has nothing nice to wear.'' Redbook''. Vol. 180. p. 108. Redbook Pub. Co. 1993. She travels to three different worlds to gather accessories for the big night and a chance with Ken.Burrill, William. "Life: Simple video games really are kidstuff." ''
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''. Saturday ed. p. H4. October 19, 1991.
Along the way she meets a veritable menagerie of animal friends and searches to find Dream-Ups, Glamor Items, and Charms for her bracelet that will help her along her way.''Barbie Instruction Booklet''. Hi Tech Expressions. 1991. In Mall World, Barbie goes on a shopping spree for Barbie coins that she uses at the wishing fountain to acquire an exquisite pink ball gown.Sviridov, Catherine. "8 бит: Barbie Барби – Once Upon A Dream... Однажды, во сне..." '' Velikij Drakon''. No.29. pp. 12–13. 1997. . In Underwater World, Mermaid Barbie and a few helpful dolphins search for pearls that Barbie returns to a giant oyster in exchange for an elegant pearl ring. Finally, in the 1950s-style Soda Shop Barbie must collect
gold record Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
s that she uses to make a stairway into the sky to collect the last accessory, a charming pair of sparkly high heels. Barbie returns to the Barbie Dream House to get ready for the Fantasy Ball, and as she descends the stairs wearing all of her accessories, a dapper Ken awaits to dance with her.


Gameplay

Unlike other Barbie games, ''Barbie'' is designed as a platformer. ''Barbies levels are "dreams" and each "dream" has Barbie walking left to right while avoiding obstacles to keep her "Zs" from dropping which would make her wake up and have to replay the level, or sometimes restart the entire game. Barbie can also request help from animals by selecting one of the charms on her charm bracelet to signal what sort of action the animal should perform. Pressing the B-button then throws the
command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * command (Unix), a Unix command * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on A ...
. If the command reaches the animal, the animal will perform the command requested. Enemies are all normally inanimate objects like tennis rackets, kites, shoes, pizza, water, popcorn, etc. that Barbie must evade by leaping over them. At the end of each section a boss battle occurs with the boss usually being overcome with the help of an animal.


Development and release

''Barbie'' was designed by Hi Tech Expressions in an attempt to get more girls to play video games, although the developers tried to make the gameplay appealing to boys as well. Following the 1984 release of an earlier title also called simply ''
Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...
'', the game became the second in the ''Barbie'' series. Together with the later '' Barbie: Game Girl'' and '' Barbie: Super Model'', the ''Barbie'' series was aimed at a young audience that Hi Tech Expressions listed as 3 to 9,Shrieves, Linda. "Life & Leisure: Girls Turned Off By the Mass of Macho Video Games." '' Albany Times Union''. 9 June 1994.Shrieves, Linda. "Girls Tuning Out Violence." ''
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''. 12 June 1994.
and that third parties recommend to those 3 to 8. The basic sales and research data that Hi Tech Expressions examined in designing the game suggested that girls tended to prefer activity-based or puzzle-oriented games over the shoot-'em-up games that were popular at the time. To accommodate this preference, the team endeavored to include puzzles and mazes while avoiding any reference to blood and violence. The game was originally slated for release in October 1991, but delays caused it to be released two months later in December. The game has two versions, one of which contains 3 new songs composed by Hi Tech Expressions producer Billy Pidgeon, Ken Kirschner, and Danny Ray.


Reception and legacy

A review published in Allgame praised it as "not just a game of silly fashions and changing outfits," but a game that "actually has simple puzzles and decent, albeit slow, platform action," and the Russian '' Velikij Drakon'' noted that the game even had a few secret areas (commonly denoted by the "B" block). Game Freaks 365 said the game was "much more interesting than you'd probably think. The pink, cute label art displaying the classic doll in 90s regalia doesn't stare you down as something with any sort of depth, but once you actually start to play it you find there's quite a bit going on in this little platformer." On the other hand, critics have pointed out that the game feels like it has been shoehorned into an inappropriate genre for its content and that even for a platformer it is wholly unremarkable. In her book, ''From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games'', Justine Cassell uses ''Barbie'' as an example of typical "pink" software—software designed with a male audience that is merely re-skinned for female gamers without regard for their different tastes in gaming. Cassell notes that in the design of the early 1990s ''Barbie'' video games, Mattel supervisors were only interested in the superficial visual appearances and left the game mechanics and development to third parties. Seanbaby ranked the game #6 on his top 20 "Worst Nintendo Games", writing that "It's not just because I'm a boy; this game really really sucks."Patrick Reiley, Sean
The Worst Nintendo Game #6 – Barbie
Seanbaby.com. Accessed 1 September 2013.
Reviewers in ''Velikij Drakon'' criticized the bosses as unimpressive, questioning for example whether as serious a word as "boss" could plausibly be warranted for "a pair of jumping pants and a jersey" (the second boss). ''Barbie'' was discussed in 1992 by the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
during a hearing chaired by the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration (under the Committee on the Judiciary) in which it was noted that the game had been subject to frequent counterfeiting and related copyright and trademark infringements. The bulk of ''Barbie'' counterfeits were noted to have originally come from
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, however at the time the counterfeiters were shifting operations toward
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,
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, and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. As the House noted, the counterfeit operations that sought to infringe ''Barbies intellectual property rights were large-scale and sophisticated operations working with the very latest ROM technology. Some of the counterfeit cartridges were essentially exact duplicates indistinguishable in quality from the original product.''Criminal Sanctions for Violations of Software Copyright: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session, on S. 893''. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1993.


See also

* List of Barbie video games


References


External links

* * * {{Barbie video games 1991 video games Barbie video games Video games featuring female protagonists DOS games Hi Tech Expressions games Imagineering (company) games Nintendo Entertainment System games Platformers Side-scrolling video games Single-player video games Video games scored by Mark Van Hecke Video games developed in the United States