The traditional games are included here as mini-games accessible through one menu. If you like casual gaming, you'll find a few interesting matching and puzzle titles, including a quiz game that portrays itself as a personality test. The fun isn't here, especially when it comes to multiplayer. What you will like is the ability to unlock special outfits and accessories through the games contained in
Diary Girl. It feels a bit like a plea for someone to play these very mediocre games, rather than connect unlockables with exploring other parts of the game, or building on trading and designing. The stock of special items is relatively low, and unlikely to be refreshed without the benefit of an in-game editor or tool. The calendar in the diary portion goes through 2020, but you'll have unlocked all of your girl's outfits long before then...
The diary portion is the goldmine of Diary Girl if you believe there's gold in them 'thar hills. I put more stock in the growth of personal blogs, or profiles attached to third-party sites like Facebook. Not that these necessarily take the place of a private diary, but the notion of a private diary isn't as fresh as the notion of sharing your story with the world in the hope that someone connects with you. I'm not a big bloghead, but I suppose there is something cathartic in spilling your guts to the world, especially when they comment and push your approval rating through the roof with their many views. Girls that love their DS and don't wish to be so... public with their lives can lean on Diary Girl. Entering content in the journal view is easy, if you consider tapping out messages with the stylus easy. The lazier girls can rely on a simple emoticon and a weather icon. It's the, "How do I feel and what is the weather doing" method of keeping a diary... More verbose girls can peck out messages to their hearts' content. There's even a handy horoscope that tells you how you're feeling and how you're going to feel for the rest of the day.
Apart from dressing up your girl and wearing your heart on your DS in diary form, Diary Girl allows you to chat with friends wirelessly across the room or across the country. As long as you have an established friend code you can launch into a one-card session, or a multi-card session. The only real difference is the flexibility to host or have someone else host. In the single-card session, you'll host automatically. Text chat is fun and there's an audio component that allows you to press (X) and speak into the DS microphone to be heard by your friend. It's just like having a cell phone, but without those pesky minutes clicking by on your Dad and Mom's bill... At the end of your session, you can quit with the comfort of knowing that the password you established will prevent snooping eyes from accessing your every private thought. Don't put anything too private in there, though, because the password can be easily reset by someone really intent on reading your stuff. Better to buy a safe and put your DS inside it, eh?
