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Disney Interactive  
Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey
From: Disney Interactive
For: Wii
Genre: Adventure
ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+)
Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey
If there's one invaluable lesson kids can learn from Disney, it's that little girls, full of wonder and irrepressible innocence, sparkle and shine, never, ever wear pants. Way to go, Walt.
Posted February 05, 2008
By SHAUN CONLIN, EVERGEEK MEDIA
 
As Disney games go, Disney Princess Enchanted Journey is better than most. Sure, it's got "unapologetic cash grab" written all over it, clearly intending itself for the under-10, Princess in Waiting demographic preconditioned to aspire to Disney's idyllic girliness and fairer-sexed sensibilities, but paste any generic character over top of the included Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid Ariel, and Aladdin's Jasmine and you've got some fairly solid, mostly harmless kiddie gaming... that would cost about half as much were it not for the marquee/trademarked/copy-protected characters and locations involved.

Nevertheless, with little assistance from parents (voice work for character interaction and tutorials doesn't always sync up with the visuals, so parents should standby with prompts. Plus, controls are a little clunky, inconsequential unresponsiveness as gameplay is slow and daydreamy to begin with, so no panic), the adventure game has you first creating your own character out of a no-name brand little-girl-playing-in-the-woods (a bit of dress-up fun by itself) then wandering iconic, Disney themed worlds plagued by some innocuous problem or other that needs your intervention, which includes walking (or swimming) around and waving your magic wand to affect bauble-collection and flower-blooming actions as well as "fights" where no one "dies" but instead poofs into a butterfly sparkle of fluttering whimsy.

You yourself never die, either -- how unbecoming of a princess would that be? --, but you do take damage from the resident pests to the point that your health meter drops precariously low but then automatically, magically, rejuvenates itself before the unthinkable happens (making the whole health meter routine pointless, but good for the odd moment of "phew!" nonetheless).

All in all, Disney Princess Enchanted Journey offers mostly-harmless fun, adventuring, puzzle solving and mini-game playing with Wii-mote wand waving and similar make-believe pleasantries, stereotypically sexist and trite though they be.


    TIP: In Disney Princess Enchanted Journey, you normally need to complete all missions before you can unlock the coveted golden dress set... but you can also go to the Secrets menu and enter "Bluebird" to unlock the golden stuff right away. Also try "Gaston" to unlock Belle's Kingdom.

 
 
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Score:  3  (out of 5)