♥Magical Makeover♥

by S. Woodson profile

Fantasy
2014

Return to the game's main page

Member Reviews

5 star:
(24)
4 star:
(22)
3 star:
(7)
2 star:
(0)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 7
Write a review


1-7 of 7


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
I love this , September 5, 2022

I want to physically inject this game into my brain. The writing is so gorgeous and the references to other story paths are so good and the worldbuilding. The worldbuilding!! I want to put this game inside a heart shaped pewter locket and carry it around with me like a colonial era soldier carrying around a picture of his wife. In conclusion I love this game and I recommend it to everyone who has ever lived

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
i love this so much, April 19, 2020
by caestor
Related reviews: based

i made an account just to gush about this game. the writing is somehow poetic, yet concise, and the descriptions are amazing? i found myself wanting to know a lot more about the world you've got here...it's so beautiful

i play this whenever i'm feeling down/just want some great imagery to chew on. bless you op

forgot to mention! as a tinnitus sufferer, it was sweet to see a character with what i've got. never have

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | View comments (4) - Add comment 

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Entertaining, if wordy, parody, May 24, 2016
by verityvirtue (London)
Related reviews: sanguine

Magical Makeover is a self-styled parody of over-the-top Flash games 'for girls', namely those whose interactivity consists wholly of choosing outfits. It starts with floridly named makeup products and a rhyming, snarky mirror but delves into a touch of body horror, and into riffs off fairy tales.

This game is generous, in various senses of the word. The writer revels in description, evoking sparkly, colourful images. While the passages got lengthy at times, this was made up for by the wit: the game lampshades tropes from fairy tales and adventure stories. ‘Lampshades’ doesn’t even begin to describe it - much of the game felt more like an exuberant riff.

The level of story branching was certainly generous as well. As the author says, there are seven possible endings, but I was impressed by how distinct and well-developed each of them were, with their own backstories.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Body-Horror Godmother, March 22, 2015
by Sam Kabo Ashwell (Seattle)

A familiar tack of Twine advocacy pieces: take some problematic social issue, particularly as expressed through games, and make it grotesque and unsettling. In this case, it’s a satire/re-appropriation of beauty-oriented games targeted at young girls: beauty products are presented as uncanny magic, and have actually-transformational results with strange consequences. There is a judgy magic mirror.

Mechanically, it’s a Sorting Hat kind of game: your choices of beauty product determine which of several branches you find yourself going down, most of which are pure-choiceless. Although the results are weird and are at least informed by Twine’s strong taste for body-horror, they don’t get so visceral as to make the piece unsuitable for its ostensive audience; and the story progresses away from its beauty-myth opening into fantasy adventure that’s only tangentially related. The on-the-nose theme and long linear sections could easily have rendered the piece tedious, but it’s buoyed up by a pleasant Diana Wynne Jones-ish ordinariness-of-the-fantastic charm.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Very, very cute., November 1, 2014

I haven't actually played any of the games that inspired it but it's hard to miss the point. It's also absolutely adorable; I've reached three of the available ending types and found each one charming. The dialogue is great and the relationships are fun. Recommended.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Grew on me, October 31, 2014

The first time I played through Magical Makeover, I enjoyed the descriptive writing and snappy dialogue, but wasn't sure how sold I was on the game's low-choice structure. But after a few replays, I started to see how the different paths hinted at each other and played off my growing understanding of the game's universe.

"Quirky" can be kind of an off-putting descriptor, but this really is a pleasantly quirky game, just wry and satirical enough to avoid becoming insipid, but just sweet enough to dodge cynicism. I look forward to more work from this author.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Not the leech pit again!, April 20, 2014
by Hanon Ondricek (United States)

This is Twine's default theme, but with a pink background where the text is tiny and still hard to read. (Spoiler - click to show)That is why the one sadly missing star. :( I *just* started futzing with Twine, and I am terrible at javascript and HTML, but even I found some default CSS templates and advice on the Twine forums to make my text bigger and take up the entire page. (Ms. Woodson: at least increase the font size and I will add the fifth star. Contact me if you need help or direction to resources!)

Okay, there's the bad stuff. MAGICAL MAKEOVER is delightfully written, wry, shot through with delicious prose and a knowledge of both vanity and the lack of confidence. Then the story takes off and actually goes in interesting places. A definite try if you're a fan of neo-fairy tales with a sense of humor. The title does not lie, the goings-on on display might be at first glance "girlish" but not just for ladies -- the author knows that and invites any reader in with unexpected cleverness and wonderful imagery.

For the most part, this *feels* like a linear story, but (Spoiler - click to show)I got an ending marked with something like a 3a, so I assume there are different ways through the plot. Most of the interaction that is not just "click to continue" seems to be how you approach the makeover at the beginning, perhaps in choices and order you choose them, and what apparel you get dressed in, so I assume it's setting some variables of some type that affect what happens later.

Recommended.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 


1-7 of 7 | Return to game's main page