Busy Scissors (Wii) Review

Full disclosure: I went into this game thinking I would be a main character, working through the hardships that were going to consist of storyline to successfully owning a salon and everything turning out right in the end.  

Storyline: Busy scissors did not contain a story.  It’s an experience based game and I felt that without a story, it left me with a disconnected feeling.  As in, there was no way for me to have a connection to the main character and attach to the game.  If there was a story, then I would have been able to bare this game for a longer period. 

Gameplay:  Where do I begin?  There is only one word that can summarize my entire experience of Busy Scissors, bad.  You start out as a trainee hairstylist being guided by the salon manager in the hopes of owning your own salon.  One thing I was annoyed with was that I wanted to have a little practice of the game before diving into the career mode.  However, that option is blurred out.  You have to play the career mode first before the practice mode becomes available.  I have never seen a game do that before out of all the ones I have played in my life.  As you begin the career mode, the salon manager offers tips and tricks to help you understand the basic gameplay structure.  It was frustrating because of the difficulty to control the different styling tools.  For example, when washing a client’s hair, the controls for the spray washer are overly sensitive and when it is over the hair, it is suppose to spray water to wash the soapy suds out.  That isn’t always the case as at times I had the spray over the client’s hair and it did not spray.  I was also being timed and far too often the time would run out and the shampoo would still be in the client’s hair all because the spray washer didn’t do its intended job.   Essentially, the controls are sensitive in the aspects of not only hair washing, but in other elements of hairstyling.

Another annoyance was cutting the client’s hair.  There is a meter for you to press to have this tiny little dot fit into this tiny zone.   By doing so, you cut the hair perfectly and please the client, thus obtaining bonus money.  I utterly despised the cutting process because the further you got in cutting, the smaller the zone became and the faster the dot would move from end to end.   It just seemed impossible to get a good score towards the end of the client session and that made me angrier.

Additionally, I thought it was nice to add the clientele book for booking appointments or gaining walk-ins so that I could gain more money and have that hairstyle salon-esq feel.  But, once I looked into the book, the only way to begin styling any of the appointment clients is that you had to buy the specific products it was featured on their profile.  Also, the products were overpriced since you don’t get paid a whole lot during the styling mode.  Why take appointment clients if you can’t even earn enough from them to provide what they want? It just didn’t make sense in any way.  This is a salon and I am suppose to have an array of products and styling tools for who ever walks in.  Yet I have to buy each individual product needed for that specific client each and every time.  At this point, I felt the realistic factor was thrown out the window. 

Graphics:  Busy Scissors seemed it would have had pretty decent graphics based on the box art and coverage on the back, but to put it lightly, it was terrible.  At the opening menu, everything is pixilated to the point it looks like 2D graphics.  The only thing that is rendered decently is the cut-out of the salon manager and when doing the styling sessions with the clients up close.  Otherwise, everything else just made me sick based on how bad the graphics were lacking.  Even when presenting the Redken© products line, they were shown as if they were cheaply made.   Redken©, who helped in the creation of this game and have a lot of their products featured, I would think they would take the time to ensure their products looked decent? The only thing I was able to make out from those products was the number on the cover and their name brand.  I was sorely disappointed at the presentation of the game and felt misled by the games cover art. 

Audio: I thought the music was going to be interesting since a lot of salons tend to play popular or edgier music, depending on what style they were going for.  Busy Scissors audio contained so little audio I don’t even know how to begin to explain.  There were sound effects for when scissors cut hair, water spraying and applying Redken© products.  Those were all great, but when it came down to the music selection, I would rather put my TV at mute than hear the same tune played on repeat.  There was also a sound effect for when the salon manager chimed in with a tip or a client popped in asking for a haircut.  It certainly was not needed and made the game feel more child like.

Replayability:  This game is designed to be played over and over, but with several key components this game lacks such as a definitive story, well-rendered graphics, repeating audio and over-sensitive controls,  there is no way I am visiting this game again.  If I had a choice between writing an essay or playing this game, I would rather write the essay because of so many aspects that just downgraded my experience each and every time I tried to give it a chance.  

Cons:

• Since this was on the wii, it should have had better graphics than 2D graphical structure presented
• Annoying Audio structure.
• Over-sensitive controls for cutting hair.
• Lack of a Story.
• No voice actors.
• Little attention to detail such as products and graphic structures.
• Game play didn't promote any level of fun, only frustration.

~Alyssa Bogie

1/10 – Horrid

Value: $0.00