Bratz -- Rock Anglez
Ages: Everyone Actually 5 - 10

Games should provide the player with experiences that are not normally available to them. In this aspect Bratz: Rock Angelz fulfills this requirement completely. There is a Paris Hilton quality to the lives that Jade, Cloe, Sasha and Yasmin lead. Fired from her job as lackey to a fashion editor, Jade and the girls decide to set up their own fashion magazine. Fade out, fade in to a glamorous office, on the top floor of the same building that housed the magazine that Jade was fired from. The Bratz pool their hobby skills to make it a go. So successful are they that they are invited to London to do a show. Success continues eventually concluding in the establishment of the Rock Anglez. Everything slips effortlessly into place. Even Paris Hilton works harder than this. Money is picked up by walking the streets. Money can also earned by performing simple tasks on the magazine -- minor jobs like decorating a Tee shirt or finding and getting back all the CD's lent to friends.

Then there are the clothes -- mostly shrunken tops for showing belly buttons and tattoos. Shoes -- all high platform wedgies -- I couldn't find a sneaker in the lot. The clothes are more appropriate for streetwalkers instead of the girls 3 - 10 who will be playing this game. The game offers the girls an opportunity to dress in ways their mothers wouldn't approve. There are clothes to tryout in every conceivable location, their apartment, the mall shops, and their office. Makeup, jewelry, CD's are essentially all for the asking, since the girls have picked up money by simply walking the street.

The producers have done a good job of including everything that the market is pushing at young girls under the guise of girl empowerment. The game cleverly makes use of text messaging to change characters. The sound track, while not familiar to me, I am sure contains the latest hits. There is constant affirmation, "You go girl", "You are looking mighty nice today", and "We can do anything. Appearance is everything -- even the loading screen reminds us that "It takes time to look this good".

Bratz: Rock Angelz is easy to play and as such will appeal to the younger girls. It is a strictly linear game. Strictly! When you pick out clothes you must pick out both top and bottom; when you put on makeup, you cannot stop at the lipstick, you must also do eyeshadow and blush.

The game comes on multiple platforms. Interestingly all three versions PC, PS2 and GBA are different. The best version is on the PS2 followed by the Game Boy which follows the same story as on the PS2 with minor modifications. The PC version starts differently, and Jade's walk on her platform wedgies is too painful to watch.

I wonder why is there no outrage about these alien eyed, swollen lipped, bubble- heads? It has become the in-thing. MGA Entertainment licenses the brand-new Bratz TV show and has sold 125 million of the dolls in 70 countries over the past five years. There is even going to be a movie!! Remember, there once was Barbie.

Reviewed by: Editor - 12/05