Revisiting the Barbie PC Games From My Childhood
The good, the bad, the embarrassing
A few years ago, while hanging out at a friend’s house, people began discussing Disney movies, specifically their favourite ones growing up. When it was my turn to share my favourite Disney movie, I answered with Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. People were rightfully taken aback. I took this as an invitation to launch into a lengthy breakdown on why the 2000s Barbie movies were cinematic gems. I changed no one’s mind on the issue, but I think people have a lower opinion of me now.
The Disney phenomenon flew right by me growing up in the late ‘90s and 2000s. What filled that space instead were Mattel’s animated Barbie movies. They generally featured Barbie in the lead role of a retelling of a popular story like Rapunzel, Swan Lake, or the best one, Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, based on the Mark Twain novel. The impact these movies had on my life cannot be underestimated. The movies often used famous classical music symphonies in their soundtracks which served as my introduction to classical music. I read Mark Twain novels thanks to Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. And most relevant to this piece: I became a gamer.
Each of the movies had a tie-in video game, and there were also completely original games like Barbie: Secret Agent, the Barbie Horse Adventure games, and Barbie: Beauty Boutique. There were enough of these so that it made buying birthday presents and gifts for me very easy. They were my introduction to computer games. I definitely didn’t play all of them, but I’m sure I’ve hit at least most of the major ones. Lately, for no once-in-a-lifetime, world-changing occurrence-related reasons whatsoever, I have been succumbing to the siren call of nostalgia, watching gameplay footage of these games on YouTube. Here’s what it’s like revisiting these games after almost twenty years.
Barbie as Rapunzel: A Creative Adventure!
Barbie as Rapunzel is the first Barbie movie I watched, and I’m reasonably sure it’s also the first game I played. The game opens with a ridiculously catchy song that I have never forgotten the lyrics to, which states the game’s premise. Rapunzel was going to have a party, Gothel was unhappy she wasn’t invited, so she uses magic to ruin Rapunzel’s house and turn her Prince Stefan into a stone statue. Gameplay-wise, you basically redecorate the house room by room and collect a gemstone from each one. Revisiting the redecoration segments was truly horrifying for me because it confronted me with the abject lack of taste I had as a child.
The game lets you take printouts of the redecorated rooms, and I am eternally grateful to my mother for deeming it a waste of paper. After you have all the gemstones you can unlock the gate to the maze to rescue Stefan.
I remember the maze sequence as being a bit creepy but I could never put my finger on exactly why. Now I realize it's because this section is the only section of the game that takes place in a third-person sequence as opposed to the rest of the game. After this comes, what for me, was the highlight of the game: dressing Rapunzel up for the ball.
As a 25-year-old, I can say I still see the appeal; those dresses are really pretty. I also really like the music in this game: it’s memorable, catchy, and now really nostalgic. A special mention to the dialogue in this game: while I understand that they had to keep it light since it was meant for kids, Rapunzel isn’t bothered at all that the love of her life has turned to stone, she’s generally either more upset about the state of her house or excited for the party later. The dissonance is really funny and I now feel really guilty for treating rescuing Stefan as some annoying chore to complete in order to get to the good stuff: the dressing-up.
Barbie: Explorer
Proof, as if any was needed, that just because it has Barbie on the cover, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. This game isn’t based on any movie and is a 3D, third-person action game featuring a Lara Croft-eque Barbie traveling to three locations to recover some rare artifacts. I think I was too young to play this game and, unfortunately, as the first-born kid, I had no older sibling to turn to for help.
I generally always made it through the first couple of levels of each area, but I simply could not progress beyond a point. I was also young enough (I think I was six) that some of the animal obstacles and quicksand really frightened me. It’s always been this small, tiny weight in the back of my mind, never finishing this game. Watching a playthrough of this on YouTube put all of this into perspective for me.
Looking at the later levels, I know now that there is no earthly way I could have beat this game. It also seems that the PC version, which is what I played, had abysmal controls. So, I want to thank my parents (or the well-meaning relative that bought me this) for believing in six-year-old me’s ability to beat this game, and I want to thank the YouTuber who uploaded that playthrough for a genuinely cathartic experience, which exorcised a small personal demon.
Barbie of Swan Lake: Enchanted Forest
When I said that Barbie movies introduced me to classical music, Barbie of Swan Lake was the exact one that did it. I’ve loved the Swan Lake symphony ever since, and as recently as last year, I learned how to play “Dance of the Flutes” on the piano.
This is why it’s really surprising that I don’t remember much from this game. I’m sure I played this just as much as the Rapunzel game, so it’s surprising that I can barely remember any of it. The premise is similar to the Rapunzel game — the enchanted forest has been ruined, play a bunch of minigames to put it together. It isn’t as focused and cohesive as Rapunzel, though.
There are a few highlights — the potion minigame was fun, as was the painting minigame later on (another opportunity to exercise my truly horrendous taste). The thing I remember most about the game was its atmosphere, the music and look of the game really conveyed the feeling of an enchanted forest. Unfortunately, it’s so forgettable that I don’t even remember much of watching gameplay on YouTube either.
Kelly Club: Pet Parade
The premise of the game is in the title — look after some animals and get them ready for a parade. This game really has it all. You can paint an elephant’s toenails. You can brush a pony’s mane and dye it any colour you like. I always picked the rainbow one. I always thought the mane looked weirdly edible and you know what? I was right. The polar bear fishing minigame audio instantly transports me back to the summer of 2003.
I couldn’t remember the fourth animal while writing this and had to look it up. It’s Kelly’s dog and now I remember that his mini game involved giving him a bath and brushing him. I have two dogs now. It’s pure fantasy that giving a dog a bath would be that easy. I always wanted to have a dog. This game helped me live that dream out. I have two dogs now. I’m 25 years old. This game is mediocre. This game is everything. This game is a part of me.
Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper
You should have already gathered by now that Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper is not only my favourite Barbie movie, not only the best Barbie movie but also one of the best movies ever. I rewatched it with my sister in lockdown last year, a little apprehensive that this movie that I had so many wonderful memories associated with, would turn out to be hot garbage that I was an embarrassment for liking. Instead, we both came away realizing that it was a better movie than either of us remembered it being. And the amount of love we had for this movie cannot be overstated.
It was therefore inevitable that the PC game for this movie would be my birthday gift, which happily falls just before the summer holidays. And I spent every single day of the summer playing this game. If I couldn’t remember all that much of the Swan Lake game even after rewatching it on YouTube, then this game is the total opposite: it is imprinted in my brain, no YouTube rewatch necessary (but I did it anyway). I still sing the opening song to myself every now and then.
In my teens, I befriended someone who has the exact same birthday as me, and who received this game as a birthday present on the same birthday that I did and also played the hell out of it that summer. We discussed all the minigames, and our favourites. Mine was obviously the cake decorating one, in my opinion, the peak of what Barbie games have to offer. Hers was the stain glass painting minigame, which is a good choice, but honestly, all the minigames in this game are excellent.
There is so much to love here; the game is just so charming. It’s got a lovely, warm colour palette. There are flowers everywhere. Princess Annalise inexplicably has a semi-British accent. Erica, for some reason, calls her “Ah-na-lise”. The last minigame, which involves finding good singers, and where you run across a villager who sings really badly, was the peak of comedy to eight-year-old me. Princess and the Pauper really is the gold standard for the Barbie franchise, and this game is the one exception to licensed tie-in games always being bad.
Barbie: Secret Agent
I’ve beaten every game in the Dishonored series without being spotted. I’m a slick, professional chameleon-esque killer in the Hitman games. When it comes to sheer difficulty, I’ve platinumed Pathologic 2, and beat Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. But I have never once seen the end of Barbie: Secret Agent. Not that that really matters; I got plenty out of this game anyway. This was the Barbie stealth-spy game that I think has universal kid-appeal. It had action, it had cool gadgets, it had heart-pounding stealth, and it had a fairly involved plot for these games.
This game got me into so much trouble, for playing with my mother’s makeup like the compact gadget, for bouncing around on furniture like in the action sequences and for pretending like I was using a lipstick recorder to record private conversations. The exact point where it got too tough for me was the stealth sequence in Rio De Janeiro, but I am at peace with that.
I loved the music in this game, especially the very James Bond-y piece that plays at the embassy party in Paris. I also loved that you needed to pick an outfit whenever a new segment of a level began, it brings back memories of me, my sister, and my friend arguing over what Barbie should wear next and dunking on each other’s choices.
Barbie Horse Adventures: Mystery Ride
Any fond memories I have of this game have been irrevocably marred by my first experience of a bad glitch in games. It’s hard to explain this glitch and I can’t find any accounts of anyone else experiencing it. A lot of this game is a third person view of Barbie on horseback, you can only see her from behind. I experienced a glitch in which Barbie’s face was somehow torn off her head and was sticking out at an angle from which I could see her face adjacent to her head, blinking and everything.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that this glitch has traumatized me. I had a few nightmares at the time. Even recalling it now makes me shudder. And I’m especially upset that no one else seems to have experienced this. If you’re reading this and you saw the same thing happen in your game, please validate my feelings of dread and unease.
Barbie: Pegasus
I have no idea how I came to be in possession of this game. I never watched the movie, but weirdly this is the one I own(ed) the most merchandise for — two dolls, a colouring book and this game. I suppose I’d reached a point where it was just assumed that buying me anything Barbie-related was OK. Like Swan Lake, I’m sure I’ve played this game a lot, but I have very vague memories of it. I think this game had a really good atmosphere in terms of visuals and music. The only things I remember are the Pegasus flying and ice-skating minigames and they are both excellent.
The Barbie Diaries: High School Mystery
Yet another game for a movie I didn’t watch. In hindsight, it was obvious that I would turn out to become a gamer. Unlike Pegasus however, I definitely remember this one, and really enjoyed it. Revisiting it now, I’m struck by its similarities to Life is Strange, both being mystery-adventure games with a high-school setting, with dialogue options and a focus on music.
The best thing about this game for me was the Battle of the Bands sequence at the end of the game, where you were basically directing a concert video. You could choose between a variety of camera angles and lighting options to match the mood of the song. There wasn’t a scoring mechanic or anything to evaluate how well you did, it was simply there for fun and I loved it for that.
The music the band plays is pretty good too, very time-capsule mid-2000s pop-punk. I was very surprised to learn that a pre-fame Kesha did the vocals for some of these songs. My personal favourites are “Invisible” and “Real Life”. This game came around the time that I was beginning to age out of the Barbie franchise, and I think I connected with it because of the slightly more grounded setting and premise.
Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses
This was, for some reason, the only other Barbie movie that my sister and I decided to revisit, and unlike Princess and the Pauper, it pains me to say that 12 Dancing Princesses does not hold up at all. It lacks the insane amounts of charm that the earlier Barbie movies had, and it feels like everyone was just phoning this one in.
I am embarrassed to have ever publicly professed to have liked it. I think by this point, any Barbie merchandise being purchased was more for my sister than me, but I was in enough of a grey area of ageing out of the franchise that I was still up for giving it a go. Unfortunately, the game was so badly glitched that we could not see anything except sandy yellowish-brown fog. We did nothing about this.
Barbie: Beauty Boutique
This is what I imagine the casual observer would conjure up when asked to imagine a Barbie game. It’s a makeover game. It’s a computerized dress-up. There’s no plot. I have a really bad idea of what good makeup looks like and I blame this game for it. Not that I played too much; this was the game that officially aged me out of the franchise.
I can’t tell if the earlier Barbie movies and games were actually better than the later ones or if this is just my nostalgia filter in play. Obviously, Princess and the Pauper stands head and shoulders above most cinematic endeavours ever, but what about the rest of them? On the one hand, I definitely think that both Pegasus and 12 Dancing Princesses, while improved in the graphics department, lack the charm that the earlier games had.
On the other hand, the only reason I like Kelly Club: Pet Parade, which I played at age 6, more than Barbie: Beauty Boutique which I played when I was 11, is because I was at the right age for one and starting to get too old for the other. This is why, for most of these games, I have no objectivity. I cannot tell you if Princess and the Pauper or Barbie: Secret Agent are genuinely good games because I have so many happy memories attached to them.
Based on the YouTube comments for the playthroughs I watched, I don’t seem to be alone in this either. For better or for worse, these games are a part of my life, and I cannot help but love them.
