Judging by the growing rate of video games targeted at female "tweens," there must be a lot of prepubescent girls out there with a hankering for virtual lifestyles. EA jumped on the bandwagon this June when it announced a brand new IP for this market--Charm Girls Club. The series includes My Fashion Show, My Fashion Mall, and My Perfect Prom for the Nintendo DS and Charm Girls Club Pajama Party for the Wii. We had a chance to delve into the intricate world of fashion and mall management when we checked out two of these titles at this year’s Tokyo Games Show.

　　Who’s Making It: The Charm Girls Club games are produced by EA Casual Studios and will ship October 2009. Each game offers about five to six hours of gameplay.

　　What Does It Look Like: We had a chance to check out Charm Girls Club My Fashion Show and My Fashion Mall for the DS. Both games place a big emphasis on customization and resource management, resulting in a very colorful interface. Once the introduction is over, you will be taken directly to a menu screen (called the hot list) where all your tasks and objectives will be displayed. From there, you can access different areas of the game to begin earning your charms. The visual quality of the games is standard for the platform and the target market.

　　What’s There to Do: The main objective of all Charm Girls Club games is to collect four types of charms--reward charms, activity charms, multiplayer charms, (supports up to four players), and surprise charms. To do this, players must access different areas of the game and unlock charms by playing a wide variety of minigames and challenges. These range from memory puzzles and timed minigames to resource management and multipart tasks.

　　For example, in the demo we saw, the player had to make and apply a beauty mask by first mixing the ingredients together, then applying it, and peeling it off. There are three levels of difficulty in each game; completing all tasks on the lowest difficulty will unlock the next level. Other minigames include dog washing, catching falling items in a department store, and participating in a fashion show.

　　How’s It Played: The DS titles we saw are played using the stylus. The bottom screen will usually display the tasks and minigames, while the top screen will concentrate on the visuals and what's happening in the game's story. Players can take control of one of four characters and customize each character by choosing from different face shapes, eyes size and colours, hair types, and, of course, clothes.

　　What Aren’t We Seeing: Charm Girls Club Pajama Party for the Wii and Charm Girls Club My Perfect Prom.

　　What They Say: Diane Williams, senior producer on the Charm Girls Club series, responded with the following question about propagating gender stereotypes:

　　"Little girls love this stuff, and we’re only catering for a small percentage of the market. There are a lot of different games out there for girls, and we’re just looking at one aspect of growing up. The games are not all about makeup and fashion; a lot of the minigames rely on skill."

　　What We Say: The Charm Girls Club series feels like a fun set of titles for young females just starting out in the world of video games.