Disney's Princess Magical Dress-Up - PC Games

Having constructed their model, girls can do a number of things--dress her up, search for more clothing and accessories in a trio of magical worlds, or paste finished ensembles into a sticker book. The last application allows you to literally insert yourself into animated scenery of Disney movies, creating pictures of yourself hobnobbing with characters from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.. Bright and relentlessly cheerful, the game urges girls to build pretty gown after pretty gown, complimenting their choices at every turn.

Burdened with an oversensitive installer and a balky interface, Disney Princess Magical Dress-Up never quite manages to overcome its flaws. Variations on this style of game abound, after all, hovering in an electronic netherworld between old-fashioned paper doll kits and more sophisticated makeover programs available to older girls. This particular version, though, has few things going for it. While it does allow players to design somewhat realistic princess models, its only real appeal lies in its three familiar characters and the recognizable aesthetic of its artwork. And even in this its scope is sadly limited, with no clothes on offer from the formidable collection of female villains in the Disney canon. Everything is very serious and very pretty, and girls wanting to build zany costumes--or even a reasonably varied wardrobe--may want to look elsewhere. --Alyx Dellamonica