Common Sense Media Review
By Christopher Healy
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Sports sim stresses team spirit and the power of practice.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 7+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Imagine: Gymnast
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
The storyline behind IMAGINE: GYMNAST follows an aspiring athlete who joins a top-level gymnastics team coached by Olympic gold medalist Shannon Miller (a virtual version of whom appears in the game). The five-member team -- all of whom the player can control -- train in the five events (vault, balance beam, uneven bars, floor routine, and rhythmic gymnastics) that they will compete in at a big competition at the end of the story. The player can also dress and accessorize the whole team in leotards of her choosing, and can even design her own team uniforms.
Is It Any Good?
With a few exceptions, the Imagine series has consistently provided girl games with stellar career and lifestyle sims, and Imagine: Gymnast is another win for the brand. It's storyline has just enough drama -- while never becoming mean-spirited or overly soap-operatic -- to keep kids interested. And the controls are well-designed, allowing for a lot of ad hoc customization during play. The ability to design uniforms is a nice bonus -- a feature the developers had no obligation to put in, but which adds nice levels of creativity and variety. If you want to nitpick, you could point out that rhythmic gymnastics are almost an entirely different sport -- one that is performed by different athletes from traditional gymnasts -- but I'm sure there are few kids in the game's target audience who will be much bothered by that.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what it takes to be a gymnast in real life. The importance of rigorous training is stressed in this game and its storyline, but the level of training and practice that kids will see in the game pales in comparison to what gymnasts go through in real life. What to young girls (or boys) give up in order to devote their lives to becoming a gymnast? How does this compare to other types of athletes?
The game also allows you to create your own avatar. Parents can ask their children why they created the avatar they did? Do they want their avatar to look like them? Or do they want the chance to play as someone very different from themselves?
Game Details
- Platforms : Nintendo DS , Nintendo DSi
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : UbiSoft
- Release date : March 23, 2010
- Genre : Girl
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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