Style Savvy is the newest game for 8-14 year old girls for the Nintendo DS. It is designed for the player to show off their amazing fashion sense while running their own boutique. The player is responsible for choosing clothes for the numerous customers and buying new clothes to replenish the stockroom. She also has the opportunity to dress and display the shop mannequins, and compete in fashion competitions.
Overview
The game starts off with the player getting ready to go interview for a stylist position at her friend Grace’s boutique. The player chooses her outfit and heads out. When she arrives at the boutique, she is quickly instructed as to how to pick out clothes per the customer’s request. Once she has chosen her best guess at what the customer would like, she can either ask the customer to “take a look”, to get their opinion on the selection, or “try it on”, which sends the customer to the dressing room to see if they like what you picked. You can only ask the customer to “take a look” three times before they get frustrated and leave, but if you tell them to “try it on” and it isn’t what they are looking for, they leave and don’t buy anything. Now, you may be wondering, “how am I supposed to know what they want?” and the answer to that is; they either tell you or you have to get clues from what they are currently wearing. There is also a “search” button that helps narrow down your choices. You can search between brands, styles, colors, prices, as well as other keywords such as “cool, glamorous, or basic”.
After about 20-30 minutes of this, you end up meeting the owner of Grace’s shop, who likes you so much that you are rewarded with your own boutique (If only that would happen in real life!) You get to chose a name for your store as well as the layout, and shop music. Afterwards, you are sent to the “buying center” to stock up on the merchandise of your choice—and then your boutique is an automatic hit! With customers waiting in line for guidance by your supreme style wisdom, you are destined for greatness.
Using the Nintendo WiFi Connection, you can create flyers and send them to other Style Savvy players, visit other shops in the country, and even open your own online clothing store. There is also a multiplayer component, using DS Wireless Play, allowing friends in range to participate in fashion contests and visit each others’ shops. Unfortunately we weren’t able to test the multiplayer part because it requires each player to have their own copy of the game.
Playing the game
Gameplay is very repetitive, but considering the nature of the game, this is expected. You buy clothes, help the customer figure out what clothes they want, sell the clothes, rinse and repeat. This may sound simple, but there is more to it: you are expected to keep a fashionable inventory according to certain in-game magazines which you have to go to different locations to read. You also have to keep track of what you have sold as well as what clothes are on the mannequins. You need to maintain a diverse inventory within the game’s 100-item inventory limit. You also cannot just stock the clothing you like; if your customers don’t like what you have, they won’t buy anything. Clothes that are on mannequins count against your inventory but cannot be sold unless a customer wants to buy everything that the mannequin is wearing, so you need to make your purchases and displays count. One thing to note is that you can only purchase, display, and sell clothes that correspond to the current (actual real-life) season. For example, you cannot dress a mannequin in a tank top, mini-skirt, and sandals if you are playing in the month of December, (even if you live in Hawaii). If you really want to get around this, the DS calendar can be changed, but the game warns you about possible story changes. There are other things to do such as “compete” in fashion competitions, but you can only compete once per day (not a “day” within the game—a real 24-hour day).
Your character also gets paid a commission based on the store’s performance. You can use your money to get your hair done and buy makeup (there are numerous hairstyles and makeup items) but they have no bearing on how well your shop does—they are strictly considered a personal luxury, and something to break up the repetitiveness of the gameplay a bit.
Besides the repetitiveness and the time/seasonal constraints, there was one annoying thing that you just couldn’t get away from—each location in the game has its own single tune, which is only about 45-60 seconds long, but it is played in a continuous loop. For your own shop, there are four selections for you to choose from with more to unlock later. Parents will want to make sure their kids use headphones since the music gets annoyingly repetitive very quickly. Fortunately, there is also an option for no music (which is my personal favorite).
Despite its repetitive nature, the game is surprisingly addictive. I found myself playing far longer than I thought, and actually started having a good time playing. (Husband note: This is quite the statement. She hates playing video games.)
The graphics are decent, considering you’re pretty much dressing 3D paper dolls. Customer movements are similar to RPG cut scenes—repetitive and just enough to demonstrate their mood or opinion of your clothing suggestions.
Conclusion & Recommendation
Overall, this game is well designed for its intended audience (8-14 year old girls). Some parents may find themselves borrowing their kids’ system to play, but beyond these two groups, the appeal may be pretty limited. That being said, this game gets a “Buy” rating for its target age group.
Style Savvy DS can be purchased from Amazon
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