Sunday 17 February 2008

Color Me Surprised

There's a bunch of fashion-related games on the casual market at the moment. Most of them seem to be of the dreaded 'time management' category, which as I've already commented, if I wanted a boring low-end job, I'd get one, not pay to pretend.

So when I downloaded Jojo's Fashion Show in order to find out if there was a gay character in it, I wasn't expecting much.

Surprisingly, it's actually fun. Even for someone like me with the fashion sense of a turnip. At least, if you have any interest in playing dressup or find dollmakers at all entertaining. I don't always 'get' why one outfit scores so much higher than another (they do tell you the scoring rules, but there are too many to memorise, you really have to go with visuals and instinct) but I can at least figure out some winning combinations, and there are enough hints to help the fashion-challenged along. And there is a lot of sparkly. And there are enough different styles that someone who hates boring normal clothes need not feel left out.

One of the boys in the house wandered by and scoffed that the models were all too skinny, but really, what do you expect from runway models?

The game is also available free with adware, and I think I may pick that up to see how it works (I haven't tried an adware-supported game yet. I don't yet know if it'll be too evil or annoying to deal with.)

EDIT: unfortunately, iwin's adware system uses IE internally. Since I am not a security-hole idiot, I have a lot of things in IE disabled or set to only-when-prompted. (Also, certain activeX controls annoy the hell out of me, secure or not.) Therefore, if I try to play their ad-supported version, I get dumped out of the game before AND after each level by an IE security popup. I don't even actually SEE the ads, but my gameplay experience is trashed. Therefore, I'd have to recommend sticking with BFG and the try/buy system, not the free-with-ads one, if you have any custom browser tinkery.

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