DS Review: Imagine: Wedding Designer

Up til now, I've currently reviewed 2 other Imagine titles; Master Chef and Animal Doctor. Given how much I loved one and practically despised the other, I wasn't even entirely sure what to expect this time around. As it turns out, it seems to be somewhere in between the two.

Wedding Designer is not a bad game. I just feel like the game was hastily made while the company realized it was hot and putting out hit after hit, so they wanted to make sure to strike while the iron was still hot. As a result, the game feels a little half-baked. There's only 6 weddings the game details doing the planning for. To complete all of these back to back literally only takes a few hours. (Compare this to the nearly non-stop playing of the other two games that I did, and this really feels like a pittance as far as gaming time is concerned.) There really should have been more challenges, but that's neither here nor there.

You get a selection of different brides of different nationalities and backgrounds who each have different wedding requests to which you must oblige. With each bride, you must design her wedding invitations, the wedding attire for she and her bridal party (consisting of the groom, her parents, the best man, maid of honor, ring bearer, and flower girl), the venue, her bedroom at home, give she and the groom makeovers for their everyday appearance, as well as choosing the right officiant and wedding party members... all to her liking. (Talk about a bridezilla!) You gauge the bride's happiness by her facial expression with each detail you pick out - if she's happy, she'll smile, and if she's unhappy, she'll pout. Upon completing all tasks, you're whisked away to the wedding in a white limousine, where you'll be playing photographer to the event. You must snap whatever the bride requests in the style she wants it, too. Each successful wedding unlocks new items, music, makeup and furniture for future weddings as well as the next level's bride.

Upon completing all 6 weddings, you still have the option of replaying each level as well as playing in Free Mode; where you design your own bride and wedding without worrying about demands. It's all up to you. This doesn't really accomplish much of anything but unlock some more items. There's also an "Exchange" mode, but as I don't know anybody else with the game, I have no clue how it works.

The gameplay is simple enough to where even the youngest of girls can successfully play this game. It's probably better that way - this title is bound to hold the interest of youngsters longer than that of adults. (It's still fun in small doses, though.) I would figure the best target audience for this game would be little girls who are about to be in a wedding party.

I must say that the makeup selections in the bridal boutique remind me a LOT of a really old pc game from 1997, "Barbie Magic Hair Styler" (which was a full makeover game, not just hair styling). So I had a little nostalgia there.

I do have a few issues with the game, though. (Don't I always?) The controls are a little iffy in their accuracy. I even re-calibrated my DS to make sure that that wasn't my problem, but it still acted the same way. (I tried it in my sister's DS too. It did the same thing.) It has a bad habit of highlighting the wrong object while you're trying to select one nearby.

The 3-D graphics in this game are still lousy, but not anywhere NEAR as bad as the ones in Animal Doctor. The 2-D graphics are incredibly cute though, and surprisingly detailed for as cartoony as they are.


Some of the background music is more tolerable than others. Certain tunes are very pleasant, while others (i.e. the music in the groom's house...it's so SHRILL) are nearly unbearable. The music store is probably the most difficult part in the game - not for actually being hard, but because while the volume on certain tracks is quite loud, others are practically inaudible even with the volume turned all the way up. (I found popping in a pair of earbuds helped.) I did like their selection of wedding tunes, though. The only other problem was the controls on the music player.

My biggest issue in this game has nothing to do with the game's quality; rather, it has to do with the subliminal messages that certain aspects of the game puts across. For as demanding as the brides are of every single detail in their weddings, they ALSO are just as picky about their groom's appearances. We're not just talking hair and clothes... I mean actual facial features. This puts across an idea of superficiality, and to judge whether or not you like someone based on their looks. (It may also be putting across the idea that plastic surgery is needed for any 'imperfections'.) Not to mention, if a woman is controlling EVERYTHING about their man, right down to what they're allowed to wear in their everyday lives? This seems like unhealthy relationship material to me. It's very controlling and possibly obsessive. I know, I know, I'm reading WAAAAY too much into what's supposed to be a simple children's game, but these are things we need to take into consideration too, you know?

One more question: since when does a wedding planner play personal fashion consultant/interior designer to these people's homes?

I'm going to rate this game a 5 out of 10 blushing brides. Some might lean for a bit higher, others lower. I'd give it a better rating if this particular game hadn't been so short.