Barbie Sparkling Ice Show

by Vivendi Universal

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000068VBF
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 24, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,253 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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The first skating game that lets kids control as well as choreograph the skating moves, this fun program showcases Barbie and her friends as international ice skating stars. There's lots to like about this CD. Children have a great deal of control over skaters, costumes, arenas and music. They also pick the level of skating difficulty-- which means that kids as young as five and as old as eight will enjoy the game and find age-appropriate challenge. Children steer Barbie or one of her friends around the rink by using the arrow keys. A well-timed space bar press will launch a jump or spin. If routines are executed well, more areas of the program are opened up, uncovering new scenery and routines. Our testers liked the game and all its options. We found it easy to get started with, well designed and engaging.

Amazon.com Review

Create a winter wonderland for Barbie lovers with Barbie Sparkling Ice Show, a creative extravaganza that enhances basic PC skills while entertaining young girls for hours.

Join Barbie and friends Christine and Teresa and visit five exciting venues: International City Park, Misty Mountain, Island Paradise, Rose Garden, and the fifth, mystery location, which is accessed only when the other four levels have been completed.

Put on impressive performances (each venue offers more challenge than the previous one): learn how to jump, do tricks, and speed skate. A level is completed when you have mastered a practice session and then put on a show. After the first level has been completed, the exhibition area will open, and once the other locations have all been visited, extra features--including decorations, music, costumes, and more--begin to appear for use in the exhibition show.

Installation is guided, and is quick and easy. Accompanying the CD-ROM is a multilingual user's manual in black and white that is comprehensive and very easy to follow. The program is designed for children ages 5 and older, but help will be needed to complete all tasks at the early end of the age range. --Susan Naylor, Amazon.co.uk

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Disappointing, December 31, 2002

By 

"ngbass" (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbie Sparkling Ice Show (CD-ROM)

In the words of my 6 year old niece: "This is Really Boring (sigh)".

Does being able to choose the color of the ice and Barbie's outfit compensate for what is a fairly limited program with mediocre (at best) graphics? In the eyes of that young Barbie devotee, obviously not.

To make matters worse, the game's producers apparently decided to create a "multilingual" product by relying on icons without any text for most operations. This approach often makes it quite hard to determine what each does without the manual.

Can't you just discover the actions of different buttons you wonder? Well, the game designers often chose to not provide any feedback that something was happening that may take a while. No hourglass, no clock, no spinning skater cursor. So for those operations that take more than a few seconds (e.g. loading a new scene) the player ends up thinking their click did nothing and they try clicking something else with unpredictable results. Frustrating.

A final word about the graphics. Sure you can dress her and her friends in five different outfits, but shouldn't we expect something a little more than 640x480 resolution these days?

It didn't crash, but you should save your money. If you could skate Barbie into a wall it MIGHT have been worth it. After 45 minutes with this program, that is what BOTH of us wanted to do.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of money!, December 1, 2002

By 

Katherine Norman (Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbie Sparkling Ice Show (CD-ROM)

Like many of the Barbie CD Roms, the playtime is limited - averaging about 5 mins for each of my two daughters (ages 5 & 7). Like the Barbie movies and other CD Roms the graphics are poorly done.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 4 year old BORED with this after 2 weeks, December 5, 2002

By 

Donita M. M. Considine (State College, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbie Sparkling Ice Show (CD-ROM)

I bought this for my 4 year old's birthday. While I think the graphics are really great, the concept stinks. My daughter told me she thinks it is boring (and she LOVES Barbie) and last night she even said she hates it! At least my 15 month old screams with delight at the graphics when her older sister plays with it.