A Treasure Trove of Traditional Barbie Video Video games

For nearly 70 years, Barbie has dominated the toy business and popular culture
in methods which can be virtually unfathomable. After watching her daughter play
with paper dolls and assign them grownup roles and lives, Ruth Handler
satisfied her husband Elliot to begin creating dolls that broke away from
the same old toddler or toddler designs.

They named her Barbie after their daughter Barbara, launching what would
grow to be some of the iconic popular culture icons of all time. As any good
popular culture landmark does, Barbie finally began making her method into
video video games. I’m a little bit of a Barbie fanatic, and I think one of many primary
causes for that
is taking part in Barbie video video games
throughout loads of the Nineteen Nineties.

To rejoice the wealthy longevity of the legendary doll, Digital Eclipse and
Atari have teamed as much as produce Barbie Rewind. This spectacular assortment
brings collectively 12 of Barbie’s most beloved video games, all of them packed
collectively in what has grow to be a relatively widespread feat for Digital Eclipse. This
celebratory package deal of Barbie’s endearing legacy of empowerment is one
that each fan of the enduring doll goes to need to add to their dream
house.

Life within the Dream Home

Barbie Rewind makes use of a extremely enjoyable framing system to form of justify the
existence of the
video games within the assortment. That was fully elective, and Digital Eclipse didn’t have to truly
try this, however what they’ve accomplished is extremely cute. Usually, video games simply
exist in a group and that’s it, however Barbie Rewind makes a direct
effort to clarify why all these video games are collectively.

Within the “Let’s Enhance” mode, you’re tasked with designing a Barbie Dream
House with help from Barbie herself. As a way to unlock extra stuff
for the home, you need to play the video games within the assortment. It’s a enjoyable
little incentive to get you taking part in extra of the gathering, which helps
preserve the sport from feeling like a museum, and as a substitute infuses it with the
traditional Barbie character.

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Like so lots of Digital Eclipse’s earlier collections, Barbie Rewind is
constructed round a real love for the IP it’s celebrating. Although it sadly
lacks a few of the extra complete video documentaries and historic
documentation which have made
earlier Digital Eclipse collections
much more partaking, there’s nonetheless lots to like right here as a Barbie fan.

Every recreation does embody lovely scans of the guide, and the dearth of
video documentaries isn’t precisely the worst factor on the earth, however after
seeing the trouble that was put into them from earlier collections, them
not being right here in some kind is a bit disappointing. Even so, there are a
grand whole of 16 Barbie video games right here, even together with an unreleased recreation
often called Barbie: Trip Journey, so there’s numerous content material to
type by means of right here.

Two A long time of Barbie Historical past

Among the many 16 Barbie video games included with Barbie Rewind, so lots of them hit
me in ways in which I wasn’t fairly anticipating. Rising up loving Barbie was one
factor, however other than the unreleased recreation, which I wasn’t conscious of till
this assortment got here round, I’ve robust, distinct reminiscences from every
title within the assortment. It’s been fairly an expertise to discover these
video games once more.

Starting with a recreation recognized merely as Barbie that launched on the NES in
1991, Barbie Rewind chronicles her excellent run of video video games all of the
method by means of the SNES and the PS1, all the best way
as much as the GBA in 2007. By means of almost twenty years of Barbie video video games, Digital Eclipse has
accomplished a wonderful job of bringing so many iconic video games again to the
forefront.

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These video games come from a really completely different time in not simply online game
historical past, however Barbie’s historical past as nicely. Barbie was repeatedly constructed on
ensuring women knew they could possibly be actually something they wished,
whether or not that was a world champion rollerblader or a detective. It typically
looks like some form of weird mash-up of
WarioWare and
Barbie, as you’ll go from designing a dream house to being a undercover agent.

Most of the video games are additionally charmingly bite-sized of their minute-to-minute
gameplay, so you possibly can seamlessly bounce between every recreation to your coronary heart’s
content material. Like loads of retro collections, Barbie Rewind additionally has a rewind
characteristic, however the buttons for that rewind characteristic additionally are likely to pop off and
on randomly in the beginning of every recreation in some relatively annoying methods. It
isn’t an outright catastrophe, but it surely was sufficient to get relatively irritating
after some time.

A Nostalgic Journey By means of Barbie’s Video Recreation Legacy

Whereas Barbie has dominated TV and films, together with a
large price range blockbuster adaptation
in 2023 starring Margot Robbie, considered one of her extra profitable ventures over
the years has been video video games. Every decade of Barbie has seen her strive her
hand at every part from being an astronaut to a rock star, leaning closely
into the popular culture that outlined that period.

The video games in Barbie Rewind are
indicative of that, as nicely. Should you grew up with Chris Anthony, Mattel’s
very personal in-house voice of Barbie for over a decade, because the voice of
Barbie, you’ll be proper at house. Many of those video games, reminiscent of Barbie: Race
& Trip and The Barbie Diaries, are intrinsically tied to a really
particular period of the character.

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They really feel like time capsules, and revisiting them on this assortment is
going to be an absolute delight for anybody who grew up with this
fantastic time for her. This was proper on the peak of Mattel figuring
out that Barbie wanted to be and really feel extra related to the younger individuals
who collected her toys. You’ll be able to nonetheless really feel some essence of Barbie’s
earlier life within the early video games, however as every new title comes alongside,
you’ll discover a definite evolution that’s not possible to disregard.

Although the video games within the assortment differ in high quality, all of them are price
leaping into in their very own distinctive methods. The early platformers are all
pretty fundamental, though a few of them even have enjoyable physics that felt
distinctive for the time, however the true draw is within the later PS1 and Recreation Boy
video games. You by no means actually know what every recreation goes to throw at you, and
for a personality who made her title on being something she wished to be, that
feels fairly in character for the bold girl they name Barbie.

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Closing Feedback

Barbie Rewind brings collectively 16 traditional Barbie video games, together with an
unreleased Genesis and SNES recreation, for one spectacularly nostalgic package deal.
The standard of every recreation is wildly completely different, however that tends to return with
the territory of those retro collections. Every recreation feels uniquely enjoyable in
its personal method, however the package deal itself has an odd subject with the rewind
buttons, in addition to a scarcity of video documentaries which have outlined
earlier Digital Eclipse collections.