Nintendo
Style Savvy: Trendsetters
Rating:
5 Stars
I’ll admit, when I first got “Style Savvy: Trendsetters” I was a little taken back. This wasn’t my usual kind of game, and I wasn’t really sure what to do with it. Nintendo has been doing a huge push recently to make sure girls know that the 3DS is for them too. One of the titles being marketed for that campaign currently is the aforementioned “Style Savvy: Trendsetters”, which is how I wound up with a copy to review. Not knowing too much about the game, I was going in completely blind, and perhaps that was for the best.
“Style Savvy: Trendsetters” is a game all about creating outfits and running a little clothing boutique. It features over 12,000 clothing items and accessories that can be mixed and matched to create various styles of outfits. You’ll be in charge of purchasing inventory for your store, helping customers pick out items or full outfits to purchase, and socializing with customers and other key people throughout town. If you so choose, there are even fashion competitions to enter.
The Fun Stuff:
If you’re a gamer who likes to customize, you might find this game intriguing. With so many different combinations possible from so many items, it’s a customizer’s dream. Not only do you get to create outfits for customers, but all items purchased for the shop are also delivered to your home so you can use them to create an outfit for your own character. You do get to customize the appearance of your character as well as pick the appearance of your house and boutique.
As you do positive things through the game, you gradually fill up a happiness meter which, when full, causes different things to happen in the game. Sometimes a new shop opens in town and other times a new clothing line will move into the buyer’s center. It’s a nice little rewards system in the game that gives you something to work towards so the game doesn’t become stale.
The Frustrating Stuff:
Although the clothing choices are plentiful and there’s a considerable amount of options for customizing your house and boutique, the number of choices for creating a character are relatively basic and minimal. You also don’t have the option of choosing to play as a male character, which is a little unusual since this game was the first in the series to introduce male customers and outfits for them. That being said, there probably are far fewer guys playing “Style Savvy: Trendsetters” than there are girls.
If the lack of a male character wasn’t enough proof that it’s being marketed mainly to younger girls, there’s the awful in-game dialogue as supporting evidence. Let’s just say that if “Style Savvy: Trendsetters” was a movie, it wouldn’t be winning an award for Best Screenplay. The story is incredible plain and simple, and the dialogue can be downright painful at times to someone who is used to a much deeper, more mature and developed story. That being said, it’s also quite obvious that “22-year-old male” probably wasn’t the developer’s target audience, so with that in mind the content is rather appropriate.
Bottom Line:
I actually had a blast playing “Style Savvy: Trendsetters”. As a fan of “The Sims”, it felt very reminiscent of that series. It’s kind of like creating your house and Sim over and over again. If you enjoy creating custom characters in games and think you have a knack for fashion, this is definitely the game for you. However, if you’re looking for a lot of action or in-depth storytelling, stray far far away from this game as it’s not meant to satisfy either of those needs.
Style Savvy: Trendsetters was developed by syn Sophia & Nintendo SPD and was published by Nintendo. It was released in North America on October 22, 2012 with an ‘E’ rating from the ESRB and an MSRP of $39.99. This review was based on a copy of the game provided for reviewing purposes.
Anthony Ortale writes news and reviews on behalf of Examiner.com. He does so much gaming in his spare time, it’s practically a full time job! If you like what you read here, please subscribe to his articles! You can also follow Tony on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook! If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email Tony any time at ortale.anthony@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you