MaryKate and Ashley Crush Course

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Summary
Courtney has torn up a note left for Mary-Kate, and it looks like it might have been a date invite to the school Beach Bash. Help Mary-Kate and Ashley find all the pieces of the note, so they can find out who it is from.

Description
Type: Mini-Games
Platform: Playstation 1, PC, Gameboy Colour
Players: 1 player
Age: 3 plus
Game Time: 2 hours
Developer or Designer: Dualstar Interactive
Publisher: Club Acclaim

Pros

Cons

Review

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Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are identical twins who became child actors in the nineties and noughties. They were particularly popular with teen/pre-teen female audiences, and also released a series of nine video games. The seventh in the series was called Mary-Kate and Ashley: Crush Course and was released for the Playstation One, PC, and Gameboy Colour in 2001. Storyline centres around a note, which has been torn up by their rival, Courtney. By completing various tasks throughout the school day, the twins find the missing pieces of the note to find out what it says, and who it is from. Although suitable for anyone over 3, the game is mainly aimed at girls between 7 - 13 years old.

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Before catching the bus to school, you can help the Mary-Kate and Ashley decide what to wear. I can see the appeal in this, because once you have completed the game, you can always go back, play again, and choose a different outfit.

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Before they start searching for the missing pieces of the note, Mary-Kate and Ashley speculate who the note could be from, and players can join in their excitement by scrolling through the list of boys, and discovering their personality traits.

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To find the missing pieces of the note, they must follow Courtney around school, which involves playing a number of different mini-games. These include a physics and history field trip (mini-golf), taking photos for the the school newspaper, trying out for the cheerleading squad and talent contest, going on a biology field trip to clean up the beach, and a visit to the arcade - if school was really like this it would be a lot more fun.

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There are lots of games to play, but they do lack a certain amount of challenge. The entire game could probably be completed within a couple of hours. Given the age range this is aimed at, however, it does seem fitting. There would be a certain sense of accomplishment in finishing a game within one afternoon, and I do remember when I was this age, enjoying the game a lot (compared to now, where it is is pretty boring).

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While, I think they got the storytelling, age range, and gameplay right, I do think they fall short in terms of graphics. The characters look flat and pixilated, and clearly the twins' faces have just been scanned and pasted poorly onto walking avatars.

The game is still available to by new from Amazon, on the secondhand market, and there has been a version created to play free online .

Categories
#playstation
#video_game
#1_player
#ps1
#mini_games

%giventogaming