Gamertell Review: Style Savvy for DS

Title: Style Savvy
Price: $34.99
System(s): DS
Release Date: November 2, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Nintendo (syn Sophia)
ESRB Rating: “Everyone”
Pros: Special clothing item each day, fashion contests can be repeated, new contest rewards each week, can open an online store, can buy from and compete with friends, can dress your avatar however you like, lots of customers to choose from, can choose clothing colors as custom designer and could appeal to men or women.
Cons: Customers get repetative, can usually sell clothes as long as you stick with the same brand and tutorial is a bit long.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up, 99/100, A, * * * * 1/2 out of 5

The DS is flooded with games for girls and women. Unfortunately, most of them are what gamers call shovelware, low quality games that are a chore to play. Style Savvy is the exact opposite. Style Savvy shows what happens when a high quality company like Nintendo sets out to craft a game a game with women in mind. It’s intelligent, colorful, filled with all kinds of great elements and has tons of replay value. It’s wonderful and easy to play, without any pandering.

Go from store stylist to store manager.

You start out in Style Savvy as a low level stylist. Really, you’re more like an average store clerk at Strata, the most popular store in town. After only one day of working in the shop, Pretty much everyone, from the store manager Grace and fellow assistant Renee, to the shop owner Dominic, realizes you are a fashion maven. Dominic then decides to give you your own store, conveniently after you’ve learned the basics of serving customers and running a store from Grace.

Once you own your own store,how you proceed is up to you. Your store’s interior can be changed, and the ambiance of the shop will determine what kind of customers you will attract, which brands will be showcased more often in the Buyers’ Center and what kinds of customer requests you’ll be fielding. You can manage the shop, dress manniquins, decide what to sell, visit the owner to get unlock new decorations and expand the storeroom, enter fashion contests, hang out with customers, decorate your character and enter contests.

Once you get into the groove, anyone can put together perfect fashions.

A quick glance at the Style Savvy box art may lead you to believe that it’s just a dress-up game. An opportunity for girls and women to collect over 10,000 pieces of clothing to create interesting outfits. While that is an aspect, there’s much more to it. Primarily, it is a shop simulation and customer service game, and a very good one at that.

Most of your time will be spent in your shop, which you get to name and design. Based on your choices, different kinds of customers will be attracted to the shop and want certain kind of brands. Your choices aren’t permanent though, and whenever you feel like you need a change or challenge, you can change your shop. Here you’ll dress mannequins, send out fashion fliers to attract new customers and address each customers’ needs.

Outside the shop, there are many places to visit and see. You can stop by the Buyers’ Center to get new stock. To make things interesting, there is one exclusive item each day and occasionally the rare Masquerade brand will have an item for sale. You can enter fashion contests at the Contest Hall, with Masquerade items available as prizes. At Dominic’s Mansion you can unlock new shop features and attributes, if you’ve met certain objectives. You can also customize your avatar’s makeup, hair and clothing by stopping by the Cosmetics Store, Hair Salon or your apartment. You’ll even get to hang out with customers at special locations and be featured in a magazine once you become famous enough.

Finally, there are the wonderful wireless options. You can open a branch store online with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, where you can sell three mannequin designs to the world, and pass out fliers over local wireless to give people the address to it. You can also use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection option to shop at other people’s stores, and to download new clothing items to your DS. You can also shop from your friends’ stores over local wireless and compete in fashion contests against them. It adds a lot of replay value and gives you the opportunity to share and connect with friends.

Nintendo shows how a game for girls should be done.

Style Savvy may be primarily a game for women, but it is of such a high quality and has such great gameplay elements that even men may want to give it a chance. You can not only totally customize your avatar, you can try to make your shop incredibly successful, prove your fashion eye is better than the virtual competitors and your real-life friends and learn how to identify fashion trends and customers’ style with subtle hints and visual cues. Its not only about style and co-ordination, but also about keen observation. If you pay attention, you can make many virtual customers happy.

By the way, if you’re in the Style Savvy world, stop by V.B.Rose. It’s in Tartan City, Wool Court, on the 65th floor. Maybe you’ll find an outfit you’d like.

Site [Style Savvy]