Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes
By Christopher Healy,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Creative game uses DSi camera; potential for abuse is high.
Add rating
A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this game.
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes
Community Reviews
There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.
What’s It About?
FOTO FACE: THE FACE STEALER STRIKES is a downloadable game for Nintendo's DSi handheld, which allows players to take photographs of people's faces and put them onto the game's characters. It also allows players to record their own sound bites that will become characters' speech within the game. The game itself is an old-school 2-D platformer, in the style of the original Mario Bros. games. The plot revolves around a villain known as the Face Stealer, who has made himself look like the hero (a.k.a., the player). The hero must traverse haunted mansions, wild west frontiers, and the Far East to track down and stop his (or her) doppleganger.
Is It Any Good?
Without its photo-capture capabilities, Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes would feel like a been-there, done-that sidescroller from the early '90s. But the game's big gimmick works far better than you might imagine, and adds a huge helping of fun and replay value to the whole experience. You can customize every character in the game, from the hero and major villains to random bats and snakes, giving each of them a face and voice of your choosing. Taking the pictures is very simple -- all you need to do is center the subject's mug in a circle on the DSi's screen. And for every character, you'll take several pics, each with different expressions, allowing the software to animate the faces (it's not great animation, but it's enough to make the mouths open and close while talking -- and it's funny). There's enough here to make Foto Face's $8 price tag seem like a huge bargain.
Online interaction: Snapshots of the hero -- with the player's chosen photograph as the hero's face -- can be shared with friends or posted online to Facebook. Since there's no guarantee that pranking teens won't photograph something other than their faces, this online component can be risky. Be sure to use the DSi's parental controls.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what it's like to see yourself in a video game? Is it more exciting? Or merely silly? Is there anything disturbing about seeing "themselves" get hit in battle? How did they go about choosing what sound bites to record for the characters' vocals?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo DSi
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release date: November 30, 2009
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- ESRB rating: E for Mild Cartoon Violence
- Last updated: August 31, 2016
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.
Suggest an Update
Where to Play
Our Editors Recommend
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate