Nerd Girl Thoughts

Okay, I know I’m usually scrambling the last week of the month on these, but man, I forgot how much I enjoyed these games, and I’m going to ‘fess up right here and now – I cheated because I started this one in May! I had a little bit of trouble tracking this game down initially, but you can play in browser on IWin, or purchase it from BigFishGames.

It took me just a little longer than I had guessed – just under four hours.

So, what is Jojo’s Fashion Show? It’s a casual game where you are given a style (or a list of styles), and you need to dress up your models in those styles to score points. You can’t take too long figuring out the best outfits, though, there’s always a timer going, and if you take too long, your model might be sent out onto the runway only partially dressed! You can access the style sheet from the model screen by clicking on the nameplate above a model’s head, which helps when it comes to some of the weirder details (like specific colors).

Some styles are fairly easy to figure out with common sense, like Bridal or Winter. Some, like Valley Girl or Flamenco Punk are a little less intuitive, but it doesn’t take too long to figure out which pieces of clothing are optimal and which others will do in a pinch. Scoring well on certain outfits will give you “power ups” which allow you to do things like shuffle available clothing or designate a model as a Super Model which will double that outfit’s score, and after playing a few levels, you’ll gain access to accessories, which can give you a little boost.

Another way to increase the score for your models is to follow the fashion dos for bonus points. Some of them are presented on level starting screens, but most you’ll learn by trying things out. Something that’s a fashion do in one style will still be something to look out for in every other style, so learning your fashion dos early and applying them often could very well be the difference between a four and five star show on some of the more challenging levels.

Which is not to say that the game itself is hard in any way – you never need more than three stars on any level in order to pass it, but if you’re looking for replayability, five star shows can be pretty challenging, especially in levels with several styles. Each level also has three signature outfits, which will then unlock in Dress Up Mode (which is an untimed alternate game mode that I skipped entirely). Beware though – Signature Outfits are frequently not great for your score!

I think the thing that surprised me the most is how much I still loved this kind of casual game – for the most part, I don’t play too many of these anymore because the cost to playtime ratio doesn’t feel compelling to me when there’s so many other options out there. Out of curiosity, I went looking and was surprised to see that Shockwave Unlimited is actually still an available service, and although it’s not likely to be something I use again, I’m glad it’s available, because it was a staple of my gaming life for several years.

Since the month is still young, I’m planning to dive into the sequel Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces for a few more hours of playing virtual paper dolls.