0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Barbie Explorer

      

Barbie Explorer is a 3^rd person action platformer with puzzle elements and appears to have been aiming for a similarities to the Tomb Raider series but for a younger audience. Developed by Runecraft limited the same developer of the recently covered Backyard Soccer, Vivendi Universal Games would handle the publishing of the game, with it releasing in Europe in April of 2001 with a North American release in September of the same year.

The game involves Barbie setting out in search of the four missing pieces of the Mystic Mirror, her journeys taking her all over the world and facing the many perils that face adventurers. Barbie has at her disposal a range of skills to help here through the sweltering deserts of Egypt or the dangers of Tibet as the player jumps, rolls, kicks and climb their way through the four locations on offer.

The game has a similar feel to Tomb Raider as well as Crash Bandicoot with the camera following behind Barbie as she progresses through each of the levels, negotiating logs and pits as she progresses, during the course of the level Barbie picks up blue crystals as well as golden hearts which grant additional lives.

As the player progresses through the level they can also get picks ups in the form of shoes, for example running shoes allow Barbie to traverse the level more quickly while spring shoes allow Barbie to jump higher and hiking boots giving her more traction.

 

The game is made up of a total of 3 locations each containing three levels with a boss fight at the end one of which is a giant snake that the player must outsmart and outmanoeuvre, once the boss has been defeated the location of the shard will be revealed, once she has finished the first three locations the fourth and final location will be unlocked where she can retrieve the final piece of the mirror.

Barbie is working as a reporter at a local museum when she learns about a mystical mirror that is missing four shards. If the mirror is reassembled it will have great power, Barbie sets out on her adventure to find the four missing shards of the Mystic Mirror with her quest taking her to the far reaches of the world in places like Tibet, Egypt and Babylon.

Only a trio of reviews for the game have survived the test of time, well on the site I use at least, these reviews range form a good one, an above average on and one that is as average as you can get. As usual though we will start with the best of them which comes from GameZone who rated the game at a solid 80.

The review commented on this game being targeted at the younger audience, with the game easy to control with buttons doing one function only. The reviewer continued by praising the games graphics, calling them nicely three dimensional with good sound support as well as lush environments, they did have one gripe with them though with some elements being flat or featureless.

To concluded the reviewer called it a delightful game perfect for younger players, with its non threatening gameplay and enough of a storyline to have Barbie hopping and diving around all over the games environments. Finishing off with the review called Barbie Explorer a well-designed product that will delight and entertain.

PSX nation were the next review for the game, with a significant drop in review score with PSX Nation giving the game an above average 61 who had the following to say. Give this to your Barbie loving, videogame hating girl if, you’re a parent that has already bought a Mary Kate and Ashley title and happen to own a PSX for your own amusement. Otherwise don’t even think about wasting an ounce of your expertise completing Barbie Explorer unless all the Tomb Raider games have been completed.

 

French publication Jeuxvideo.com were next up with the lowest surviving score which is an average as you can get 50. Their reviewer concluding with this Barbie Adventure leaves a bitter taste, the game offers a nice concept that has already been tested in other games, however this one is tarnished by many defects. Starting with the much too rigid handling, that turns each phase of the platforming into a real plague, the game ultimately is very average without any great quality or originality.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude where this game seems pretty common, with Gamedude paying $3 if you are looking to trade in your copy of Barbie Explorer. On the other hand if you are in the market for a copy of the game, then one can be picked up pretty cheaply at $8.

Retrogames.co.uk sadly don’t stock or list this title so we will quickly move on to eStarland.com, while they do list the game eStarland.com are currently out of stock for Barbie Explorer. The game has a usual used price of between $5.18 and $11.50, eStarland do also offer a trade in for the game with up to $5.50 paid for a complete copy of the game, this price will vary depending on how complete you copy is with a disc only copy worth up to $1.92.

 

Lastly we have Amazon.com where we find a small number of copies available, with an complete copy in acceptable condition the cheapest on offer at $9.58 if you are looking for a better quality copy a couple of good quality copies are priced up at $12.58 and $12.99 respectively.

If on the other hand you are wanting better quality than good you will have to pay a fair bit more with the cheapest very good condition copy priced at $26.95, this does come with free shipping, as does the other very good condition copy on offer but is priced at $39.59.

A couple of like new copies are on the market as well the cheapest of these comes in at the same price as the highest very good quality copy at $39.59. This is by far the cheapest of the two like new copies with the other copy currently on offer priced up at $52.99.

Written by

P J Gibbon