This was a game I bought for my nine year old niece but I have become a bit adddicted to the game after having discovered it whilst playing my niece's Nintendo DS on the sly!

It's a role playing type game where you are responsible for and/or assume the role of a character who aspires to become a world famous fashion designer. The character lives and breathes fashion and you must guide your character through her daily events, helping her live her fashion dream.

The game involves walking in the footsteps of a fashion boutique owner who is trying to earn a living and achieve success and fame in the fashion world. The game has a split screen effect and in one screen a character will talk to your character, guiding and hinting what you need to accomplish. The on-screen prompts pretty much tell you what you need to do in order to successfully complete certain tasks and they are easy to understand I imagine even for younger children.

Your character is heavily involved in the fashion world, and throughout her existence finds friends and contacts who will help her on her way. The main part of the game involves being in charge of a boutique where you must serve and advise customers as if you are a shop assistant/professional designer. Random characters will show up at the shop and tell you what kind of clothes they are looking for. The visiting characters might be high class celebs or surf bums and each requires you to deal with them in a different way. You are required to find whatever they are after. If you have satisfied their needs they will buy the items you have suggested, if not they'll leave emptyhanded and you will be out of a few bucks.

It doesn't always work out how you want it to. Characters in the virtual world have minds of their own and won't necessarily like your fashion reccommendations even if they seem appropriate to their needs! It's a learning experience as far as being able to identify clothes types according to the description given. For instance, a character might come into the workshop and request a "funky disco" skirt or "ski holiday" top and you have to choose which clothes best fit these descriptions. There is a lot to consider, too, from gloves to eyewear to hats to shoes. Every whole outfit has to gel together and if it doesn't that customer might walk out the door and you won't have sold anything! Serving customers in the shop is my favourite part of the game as there is a new scenario every time you are in there and there are lots of amusing and unusual characters who interact with you/your character. As well as being a challenge it's fun to be able to be so creative and to see how different characters look in the outfit you have ultimately designed. It never gets boring for me and there is never a shortage of visitors. One complaint I'd have is that all of the customers have the same bodyshape - are there no larger people in this virtual world?

There is also a whole new social world to explore in the game. You will find friends who will invite you to fashion events in the area. Find them and the special locations via an interactive map. If you attend any events you gain the opportunity to make new contacts or be seen in the latest fashion. You might bump into a fashion photographer on the street who is just so keen to take your picture!

There is the opportunity to enter fashion design shows too. You can dress your character how you wish and also give her make-up options. These options are limited by how much money you have in your account. You can earn money through selling clothes at the store or by winning competitions. Your make-up and clothes collection can be vast. I am amazed at the choice of lipstick shades for instance - there is more choices of colour available than I've ever seen in any real life chemist!

Competitions are fun and you are talked through the process with the on screen inserts. A stroll down the catwalk is mandatory as is getting your picture taken. Your pose is snapped and then sent to your personal gallery where you can view it as many times as you wish as your moment of glory. This part of the game is exciting and there is a lot of razzmatazz and suspense although the competitions are suspiciously easy to win!

I found it quite interesting just to play around with the way the character looks rather than get caught up in completing a mission as quickly as possible. It's also fun to see the clothes they feature in the game. Wow, there are some items that you really only would find in a Vivian Westwood boutique or draped over super skinney supermodels on a Milan catwalk! I think this is a game you should just relax and have fun with. Think of it as a slow journey to success and take your time with it!

My niece, who's very interested in fashion also has a couple of other fashion games for the DS: Beauty Stylist and Style Icon and she thinks this is the best of all of them. I certainly think it's the most sophisticated of these kind of fashion based games and think this will appeal to older kids and adults too!