You skate by using the Nintendo DS stylus on the lower touch screen. Rivals will show up both on and off the ice too which add to the story. When not on the ice, you will go to school, work part time jobs, go on dates, or spend time with your friends. You will earn money to buy new outfits and get to travel to compete in new arenas and unlock new events. From there you’re whisked away to a tutorial where you get to try skating for the very first time.ĭo well and advance through various qualifying rounds improving your skill and technique. Gameplay: 10/10 – Gameplay is where Imagine: Figure Skating really shines! When the game starts, you select one of three girls, each with her own strengths and weaknesses both on and off the ice. Overall: 59/70 84% B “Very Good Game For Girls” Imagine: Figure Skater Nintendo DS Retro Game Review It has a good dose of comedy, slice of life, drama, and surprise. Sweetie: 5/5 – This game has a little bit of everything, all in one very cute package! Ice Skating is beautiful and elegant and as you compete you unlock new areas to explore, new outfits to wear, and you interact with friends, lovers, and rivals. If you enjoy watching the Winter Olympics, or enjoy anime such as Yuri!! On Ice, then you will enjoy this game! It gave a good look at what skaters go thru when training. It offered high replay value too with different girls to play as and different events and dialogue options. Gameplay using the stylus to perform ice skating moves is both fun and challenging.
Geeky: 5/5 – Gameplay is solid, the graphics are a little bit pixelated, but that’s probably just limitations of the software of the time ten years ago. Where to Buy: Gamestop has both of these for about $0.79 and $1.99. Genre: Career/Life Simulation Game with Dressup Game, Dating Sim and Otome Game aspects Thankfully the art in the actual game is fully done in an anime and kawaii style which could appeal to either audience.
This alienated most of your “built in audience” while trying to build a new audience with younger girls. Most of us are 20+ years old, otaku/anime fans, and would rather buy the original box art on the right, than that which was designed for the US on the left. Do your research and understand your target audience better. Why try to forcefully create an audience, when there already exists a large audience begging publishers for such games. These games were perhaps too ahead of their times – with the relatively recent popularity of Yuri!! on Ice, and increased representation of Otome Games in the United States, I wonder how a sequel for Nintendo Switch would fare these days, if marketed properly. Imagine: Ice Champions Nintendo DS Olympic Ice Skating Otome Dating Game I have not played the sequel yet, but Gamestop has it for just $1.59. There’s also apparently a sequel to this game, called Imagine: Ice Champions. Gamestop has the game in-stock for just $0.99 cents! – If you have a powerups reward card, Even better, you can grab it for just $0.79 cents!!! OMG… Go, go, go!! If you like anime, ice skating, dating sims, or otome games, it will be the best 99 (or 79) cents you could spend today. They should have aimed it at anime/otome fans, but this was 10 years ago, before otome games had much foothold in the US. Why they went with a photograph of an iceskater on the US version, I dunno. Not true! The original boxart in Japan was much better – featuring anime style artwork. Imagine Figure Skater Nintendo DS Otome Olympic Ice Skating Gameįirst, you might look at the box art for this game, and think it is for little girls. I’ve also been thinking about rewatching Yuri!! on Ice. The game first came out in 2008 (at least in North America), making it “retro” by my definition (I consider anything greater than 10 years old to be retro.) I’m thinking about digging out my cartridge and playing it again this weekend.
This game, as it turns out, was Imagine: Figure Skater for the Nintendo DS.
I remembered fondly an NDS game from “a few” years ago that I played that allowed you to take on the life of a professional skater, competing in various events, training, dating, and dealing with drama. With the 2018 Winter Olympics well under way, I’ve been thinking a lot about games and anime (such as Yuri on Ice which I reviewed here) that showcases the dedication that a skater must possess. Affiliate links within this post may be commissionable.