When the opportunity came up for me to review Lego Friends, for the Nintendo 3DS, I jumped at the chance. What I didn’t do was research the game beforehand and realize that the game was tailored to young girls around the age of 7 or 8. Instinctively, I saw the word Lego and imagined Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Batman. Imagine my surprise when the game arrived and the item pictured above was enclosed inside the bright pink box, hidden underneath iridescent tinsel. However, I am a gamer, and gaming is what I do. So, I manned up and removed my copy of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance from my Blue XL 3DS and inserted this little gem.
I lowered the sound, as I sat on the couch while my oldest daughter (she is 16) sat on the adjacent love seat doing homework on her laptop. After about ten minutes of playing, she finally looked up and said, “What the frick are you playing?” Shyly, I answered her. Her response was yelled from the living room to the kitchen, “Moooooom, Dad is playing dress up games on his 3DS!” Now, I admit, there was a certain level of dress up involved in the game. There are also pets and challenges, and much much more. Despite my best efforts to rush through and finish enough to complete an adequate review, I found myself actually enjoying the game. Sure, I envisioned my young female character as a younger Samus before she grew into a life of alien annihilating awesomeness, but I still had fun. In fact, this is the kind of game I would play with my daughters when they were much younger (I had to change up genres after my oldest cried for hours when she was a baby after seeing Seifer kick the dog in FFVIII), so there was a bit of nostalgia there.
Although I do not believe I would quite recommend this game for some of our more hardcore readers, those that have young daughters might find this game to be well worth the purchase. There is a lot packed into this game, such as character customization, puzzles, life lessons, fun games, etc. So, if you are looking for a great holiday gift for that young girl on your list, this would be the perfect game for them!
