Jojo’s Fashion Show – World Tour review

If you take a peek at my closet, it becomes painfully clear that I’m not a fashionista. Clothes have never held a lot of interest for me, but after playing Jojo’s Fashion Show – World Tour, I can start to see the appeal. This is the latest in the popular time management series, and while it’s undeniably girly in its premise (Clothes! Models! Fabulous locations!), it’s also well-crafted, fun to play, and sports some downright gorgeous graphics.

The story, as you might expect, is mildly ridiculous, but still entertaining enough to push the action forward. Daughter Roz is setting off to pursue a solo career, so world famous fashion designer Jojo is forced to hire on the young, ambitious, and obnoxiously blond Hayley to help out on her major world tour. Of course, there’s more to Hayley than meets the eye, and soon enough mother and daughter are banding together to battle their way back to the top of the fashion world.

At each stop of the tour, you are responsible for pulling together the outfits for the show. A tag above the model’s head display the style you’re looking for, and you can tap it for a list of the various criteria that make up a particular style. For example, “Kimono Krazy” might have you looking for reds, florals, wrap skirts, bamboo prints, etc. The closer you stick to the list, the more points you rack up, and there are extra points in store if you can construct one of the “signature outfits” that are displayed in a little box on the left.

Outfits are broken up into three parts, a top, a bottom, and shoes. You only have a limited amount of time to dress a model before sending them out to the runway, so every second counts. There are three models up at a time, and you can earn extra points by chaining styles together.

You unlock new styles as you progress through the game, and the game pulls looks from all over the world, from Urban Rasta to Moulin Rouge, and before each level, you also have the option of creating your own outfit for each style. The outfit creator is surprisingly robust, with a lot of freedom to adjust and tweak as you see fit.

The visuals are really quite impressive, with dozens and dozens of detailed and lavish outfits making up your virtual closet. The small iPhone screen makes it a little hard to make out the tinier details on things like shoes, and some of the style criteria don’t always seem consistently enforced, but I found the game challenging and engaging nonetheless. The models are a little scary, but the clothes are aces.

Unlike Fashion Fix, which forces you to stick to a very rigid fashion template, this is a fashion game that actually allows you to express yourself and take some creative chances. My actual wardrobe may be pathetic, but there is still something undeniably satisfying when you put together a really great look, and I found this game perfect for indulging my inner, hidden, woefully neglected fashionista.

Here is a video demo of the Jojo’s Fashion Show – World Tour app on the iPhone

AppSafari Rating: 4/5

AppSafari review of Jojo’s Fashion Show – World Tour was written by Tracy Yonemoto on November 12th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Games, Puzzler, Time Management. Page viewed 17240 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.