American Girl doll skates into computer game
— -- Mia St. Clair is this year's Girl of the Year doll from the American Girls. In addition to having her own books, she also has her own computer game. American Girl: Mia Goes for Great is a puzzle adventure that follows Mia on her journey to become a competitive figure skater.
In this Windows-based game, THQ lets girls control 10-year-old Mia by simply pointing and clicking (or by using the arrow keys). The game takes place during the winter months in a small upstate New York town. Against a beautiful backdrop of snowy landscapes and detailed interiors, Mia prepares to compete in her first two figure skating competitions. You will help her to select music, secure costumes, design programs that comply with the competitions' requirements, practice and compete.
As Mia, you walk around her town and meet its inhabitants, including her parents, three brothers, friends, the town's librarian, her skating coach and store owners. You can talk to each person by selecting conversational sentences from a drop-down menu of possible things to say. You have a backpack in which to keep things you find, and a diary that automatically keeps track of things you discover and generates a "To Do" list that helps you figure out what to explore next.
Similar in game play to the Nancy Drew computer games but a lot easier to play, the game revolves around talking with and helping others so that they will help you.
For example, before your coach can tell you about the new requirements for your performance routine, you need to go to the auto repair shop to retrieve the new rule book from the coach's glove compartment. Because the car is being repaired, you need to persuade Mia's brother Skip, who works at the repair shop, to retrieve the book for you. But Skip won't help you until you bring him lunch. And to get him lunch, you need to earn a pizza coupon from another of Mia's brothers by helping to sweep snow off the ice on the pond. Sweeping snow is actually a fun match-three-in-a-row-type game involving different shaped snowflakes on a large grid. You play by swapping snowflakes that are next to each other so that you create three-in-a-row matches.
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