Game Summary:

Barbie as The Island Princess follows the storyline of the popular DVD launch in a fun party-style format. You'll play as Rosella the shipwrecked princess who israised by a "family" of animal friends and rescued by Prince Antonio from her tropical island. Through a series of mini-games featuring music and characters from the movie you will venture from Rosella's island home to the Prince's coastal castle in a fun fill adventure! Features 28 exciting mini-games featuring music singing dancing and more! Experience 5 beautifully recreated locations from the movie: the Deserted Island, the Royal Ship, Harbor Village, Apollonian Castle and the Greenhouse, all while interacting with your favorite movie characters. You can even design your own wardrobe of clothes fit for a princess. Come join the fun with Princess Rosella, Prince Antonio, Tika, Sagi, Tallulah and more! Customizable princess clothes ESRB Rated E for Everyone

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Game Review:

Barbie as The Island Princess is the videogame tie-in to the direct-to-video computer animated Barbie movie. As with the previous Barbie movies, a line of dolls, toys, and other products were produced in conjunction with the film.

“Barbie as The Island Princess”, for the Nintendo Wii videogame console, is a collection of 28 minigames. Only a handful of minigames are available from the beginning, while other areas (Royal Ship, Harbor Village, Apollonian Castle and Royal Greenhouse) and games must be unlocked by earning Island Roses. One to three Island Roses are awarded depending on how successful the player completes the different minigames. Two players can play at the same time, however most of the games are versus- and only a few are designed for cooperative play.

It is very unfortunate that so little effort was put into the game. The developer clearly sacrificed quality for quantity. Instead of creating 28 unimaginative and sometimes down right boring games, it would have been smarter to create 5-7 good minigames. EA Playground and Wii Play validated this approach.
To make matters worse, Barbie as The Island Princess makes ridiculously poor use of the Wii Remotes motion sensing capabilities. The game also requires the Nunchuck, which adds unnecessary complexity. Considering that the game is targeted at young girls – most will probably be at an early reading stage, we cannot understand why the game only gives written instructions and only for a very short period of time. No visual animation or graphic is available to help kids understand, what should have been an intuitive control scheme.

Safe your money and buy your girls a real Barbie for imaginative fashion doll play.