Bratz adventure games

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Bratz: Rock Angelz, Forever Diamondz, The Movie and Girlz Really Rock are four adventure games based on the Bratz dolls and are also based on the direct-to-video movies of the same name (with the exception of The Movie which is based on the TV series). Developed by Blitz Games and published by THQ for various platforms, including the PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, and Wii. All four games were released on PlayStation 2, but on other platforms it was different with the release.

Gameplay

Home console versions

The games are all adventure games with openworld, in the similar fashion as the GTA series, The game also allows to use Roller-skates, for faster travels, use your camera on your phone to take photos, pose, change the characters clothes and apply there make up. The player can play as 4 of the main Bratz girls (Cloe (Angel), Jade (Kool Kat), Yasmin (Pretty Princess) and Sasha (Bunny Boo)).

Portable console versions

The Handheld versions are structured more like RPG games, with a few elements from the console version also being present.

PC version of Rock Angelz

The PC version of Rock Angelz plays like a typical point and click adventure game, that also adds in a few additional minigames.

Plot

Rock Angelz

Jade gets a job to work as an Intern on her favorite magazine, You're Thing Magazine, run by Burdine Maxwell, however she gets fired, for giving her a burger for lunch. Her friends decide to then cheer her up and throw a surprise party, and then they decide to run they're own magazine.

Forever Diamondz

The girls enter a fashion contest run by Byron Powell (A parody of the Talent show judge Simon Cowell), with they're rivals being You're Thing Magazine, they must find a Fashion Model in order to win the contest, and earn the Diamond boots.

The Movie

The game is an adaptation of both the TV series (mostly the 1st season) and the live action movie in name only.

Girlz Really Rock

The girls go to Camp Starshine during summertime, in order to win a contest there.

Why None of Them Rock

Note: Most of these reasons will apply to the home console versions.

Overall

1. These games are all reskinned of each other, aside from a few changes, for the most part, they feel and play exactly the same.
   • The only real difference about the games are the story, clothing selection and the unlockable items.
2. Graphically speaking, all the games look pretty poor and outdated, especially in comparison to most other games from the times they were released, Girlz Really Rock might have better graphics but that's not saying much. The GameCube and Wii versions of The Movie (despite running at a higher resolution than the PS2 version, and the consoles powerful hardware than the after mentioned console), look worse, the shadows are just black circles, and don’t even follow the characters properly.
   • The graphics in the GBA versions are also pretty poor, due to drab color palette, and poorly made sprites. Speaking of which, in text boxes, all the characters look like they use the same sprites.
   • The DS version might not look as bad, due to being released early on the systems lifespan, but they haven't aged well.
3. The stories that these games follow are poorly thought and implemented, speaking of which, they don't follow the DVD movies properly (or in the case of The Movie game, it does not follow the live action movie at all), However, The Movie is a worse example as it, follows the story of the TV show but pretty poorly, it makes the gamer easily confused and hard to follow through.
4. Poor gameplay that tries so hard to mimic the GTA series, with its “open world” environment and gameplay with the addition of mini games (with the music rhythm ones in the last two games ripping of Guitar Hero and Rock Band), though it fails, also to add icing on the cake, Rock Angelz even runs on the same engine as the 3D era GTA games (III, Vice City and San Andreas) though to a much poorer extent.
   • The GBA versions of the first 3 games are all top down games, filled with mini games, that often get boring really fast.
   • The PC version of Rock Angelz on the other hand being a point and click adventure game, that also has mini games.
   • The DS versions of the 2nd and final games being similar to the GBA versions.
5. Despite having the same voice actors, the voice acting is pretty awful in these games (the worst being Soleil Moon-Frye and Britt Irvin who both voiced Jade respectively), speaking of which sometimes it sounds obvious the voice actor was reading the script. All the characters also talk in these stereotypical accents and teen slangs, which can get annoying. This even includes talented voice actors like Yuri Lowenthal, who's best known for his role as Uchiha Sasuke in Naruto, Teenage Ben Tennyson in Ben 10: Omniverse, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien and Peter B Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man and it's sequel Miles Morales.
6. The dialogue in these games are just laughable, for example, The most infamous being Burdine Maxwell yelling “Fired!!!” at Jade in the opening cutscene of Rock Angelz. Another example of laughable dialogue, is when Jade says at the tutorial of Rock Angelz, my life is so over. I suppose i should press the A button and read the text from Cloe.
7. The music in these are forgettable, consisting of nothing else, but generic Teen Pop (which was popular during the 2000s but now it comes across as outdated.) They also only play indoors (unless you play them on your phone), making most of the game silent.
8. Bad controls, the movement is so slippery, which makes collecting Blingz much harder than it needs to be.
   • This is worse in the Wii versions of The Movie and Girlz Really Rock because you have to hold the B button to walk and move the Wii remote left or right to go left or right, to make matters worse, it doesn’t use the Nunchuk, despite the fact most games on the Wii tend to use it for movement.
9. Despite the fact these games are open-world, the maps are so small and empty, to make matters worse, every time you go to a new location there will be a loading screen. (Though it wouldn’t be bad if this was more of a Semi-Open World game.)
10. These games are often really buggy and glitchy, for example the hair physics on the characters are way too off, and just wave around randomly.
    • Also in Girlz Really Rock you can clip through the floor, and there is no way to reset this, the only way to save yourself is by resetting the game/console.
11. The animations are awful (not counting the CGI cutscenes which were taken from the DVD movies even if they’re still bad looking.) The worst is the lip syncing where the characters just open and close their mouths at random. Also at one point when Kaycee opens a window, there's no animation for opening it.
12. These games have overemphasis on fashion and shopping. Despite the fact these games are targeted at little girls, this can serve as a bad message.
13. If you ignore all the collectibles, these games are really short, lasting about 2-4 hours, however it can also be long due to the absurd amount of loading screens.
14. The characters are unlikable especially the villains The Tweevils and their boss Burdine Maxwell, who act mean to the Bratz, and act like total jerks, even Burdine acts mean to the Tweevils as well, because she harasses them at work.
15. With the exception of Girlz Really Rock, the roller-skates are really hard to control, not only that, but sometimes they are part of the objective, making it for unfair difficulty.
    • Also in Forever Diamondz and the movie, there are even Ice Skating sections, not only that, but due to being on ice the controls are even worse.
16. The poster and shirt designing features aren't also any better, since they are very limited, and it can always look awful no matter how hard you try.
17. Generic menus in the console versions, which show nothing, but the game’s title, with a background showing the clips from the DVD movies (The TV Show in The Movie), and the options menu shows a bland still frame with ugly shades of pink.
18. The games lack any sort of real tutorial, though Rock Angelz has one, it is extremely patronizing, the other games only have tutorial for other new features, so it means if you haven’t played any of the previous games, you’ll be most likely confused of what to do.
19. You get to collect randomly materialized objects Blingz (the games' currency), however due to the after mentioned controls it will be hard to collect them, speaking of which, the only thing you can buy them, are more clothes, make-up, instruments (The Movie and Girlz Really Rock only), Roller Skates (Rock Angelz only, in the other games it’s already applied automatically, in Girlz Really Rock they’re not available) and Pets (Forever Diamondz and The Movie).
    • Also you with each girl you have to collect their zodiac signs, which can also be really frustrating despite having only one thing to collect.
20. The posing minigames in these games are way too simple, all you have to do is press the buttons in the correct order, not only that, but despite the timer, there's no challenge at all, and the timer at times moves so slow.
21. The games lack any sort of replay value, the only reason why you would want to play the game again, is to buy clothes and make up you didn't get before, but other than that, the games plot doesn't change at all.
22. These games are at times bare of sound effects for example, most sound effects in Forever Diamondz are random bleeps, insisting that the developers forgot, or didn't had any budget to record anymore sound effects, and were only left with stock sounds, also when it has sound effects they mostly sound poor and low quality.
23. These games are filled with shameless self promoting product placements for example:
    • All the games not only self promote the game, but even the other doll lines of the dolls that the games are based on.
    • The Movie advertises the critically panned live action movie adaptation.
    • It's spin-off lines (Bratz Boyz, Bratz Kids, Bratz Babyz and Bratz Petz) are also promoted.
    • The Direct-to-DVD movies are also promoted (which is even more baffling since the 1st, 2nd and 4th games are already based on DVD movies), and even the TV series itself (with the 3rd game already being based on it).
24. The GBA versions of the first 3 games try so hard to be like RPG games, however they don’t feel like them, due to not having elements commonly seen in RPG games, plus the worlds in the GBA versions are even more empty than in the console version due to lesser people to talk and interact with.
    • Adding to that, the GBA versions feel like task jobs, due to most objectives being simple tasks, such as moping the floor.
25. The AI in these games are poorly made, the only reason why you talk to them is to get objectives if they have one, other than that they will just say random things, and often times react to you’re outfit, but no matter what outfit you wear, they will always seem to dislike it.
26. Rewards aren’t that rewarding:
    • In the console version after completing a chapter, all you get is more Blingz, the fashion magazine you can read that you’ve just finished and more clothes to buy, after completing objectives is just more Blingz.
    • In the GBA versions of the first 3 games and the DS version of the 2nd and 4th games, all you get after completing something are more points, and also more blingz.
    • In the PC version of Rock Angelz all you get are more clothes, after completing a minigame.
27. The cheat codes are often useless, as all they do is change the AI’s clothes and add you more Blingz, making the cheat codes for the most part useless.
28. There is no difference about the clothes or the make up you wear (aside from what line you have to pick), in fact you can just paint the girls' face with one single color, as there are no instructions of what make up you have to do, and you can give them whatever clothes you want.
29. The photo sections are also pretty boring, all you do is take pictures of the girls taking poses, however it takes a long time for them to pose and sometimes it doesn't matter what you take a picture of as the game will still continue.
30. The GameCube versions of Rock Angelz and Forever Diamondz run on a terrible framerate, this is obvious to notice at times, also they are still present if you play them on the Wii via backwards combability, the only way to get rid of them is by playing on a Dolphin emulator.
31. The characters in these games aren't properly introduced, this is confusing for those who don't know anything about the Bratz dolls or anything related, though the manual tells more info on the characters but only on the main 4 characters and not the other characters.
32. Broken camera, sometimes the camera just clips through things, while other times where it gets close to a wall it just bumps into it and stops, also sometimes it goes inside the characters head, which is not only weird, but it even looks downright horrifying, as it just reflects they're faces outside.
33. The endings in each game aren't that exciting:
    • In Rock Angelz the girls get together again, make one last fashion show, start a Rock Band and than a music video plays.
    • In Forever Diamondz, the girls win the boots, but then Mandy (Who they get first), steals them, start chasing her, The Main 4 girls get on a train by accident, then Sharidan (who they get second), stops her, than the main 4 girls appear in the next stop, Mandy gets arrested, than the girls preform at a skating ring.
    • In The Movie, Bratz Magazine is selling more than Your Thing magazine, than they got famous again, only to be followed by a pointless message following the credits.
    • In Girlz Really Rock, you just preform at the camp starshine, to be followed by a music video, unlike the previous games, the ending is nonexistant.
34. The maps in the games are small, empty and uninteresting, most of the time, you will walk around the same corner, and there aren't a whole lot of people populating it. It also doesn't help the fact that almost all the characters are teenagers. Despite being small, you can easily get lost in some instances. The map screen doesn't help either, due to how awful it looks, and there's no Minimap in these games.

Rock Angelz

1. Despite the title, there is nothing related to rock (unless you count the music, though it sounds more like pop music) or anything in the console version, instead, it mostly consists of fashion, making magazines, and posing, which is a case of false advertising.
2. Minus the PC and GBA versions, while Forever Diamondz and Girlz Really Rock both followed the plot of the movies, Rock Angelz doesn't, the plot itself is also pretty bad.
   • Also there are some instances where the story makes absolutely no sense, for example, Jade gets fired all because she gave Burdine a burger for lunch.
   • There are other stupid moments, like when Cloe signs a contract to work on a magazine, without looking only to notice that it was the yourthing magazine, and Yasmin getting bored of her job as a flower seller, because she's also been tricked by Burdine.
3. Very inaccurate representations of London and Paris, that look smaller than their real life counterparts, with the only thing, added on cherry on top are the Big Ben clock on the former and the Eiffel tower on the latter.
   • What's even weirder is that the developer of the console version (Blitz Games) was in the UK, so it makes no sense why they couldn't do it more accurately.
4. There's a really annoying part, where you have to find all the contract pieces, before Burdine does, not only that, but right after you collect one, she will right away go after the next one, so you have to wait for her to get closer, before you pick it up, however it can be frustrating due to the awful controls.

PC

1. The computer graphics in the PC version are really awful (if not worse than the console version), the character models, especially for the Bratz, are downright hideous to look at.
2. Speaking of the PC version, you are forced to play the minigames 4 times, making them repetitive.
3. The PC version is also nothing but a reskin of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie game's PC version, which was made by the same developer.
4. Also, the menu in the PC version is pretty bland, consisting of nothing, but awful character models from the game, that don't accurately represent the option.
5. The minigames in the PC version are boring, the first one has you make smoothies, the second one has you pick clothes, the third one has you dress up the girls, the 4th one has you take pictures of various characters and the last one has you play a music minigame, to make matters worse, you have to play them 4 times, and if you fail, you have to start all over, making it repetitive.
   • Also if you fail them, you have to start them from the beginning, no matter on what round you failed on.
   • Also in the final minigame it’s hard to know where to click the button, since there is no indication on when you have to click on the notes.
6. In the PC version, unlike most other Point and Click games, the rooms and locations are often barred, with little to nothing to interact, also it gets confusing, since they aren’t a whole lot of clickable items to interact.
7. Also in the PC version the animations are also pretty poor, sometimes non-existent, for example there is no animation going through doors, instead the screen just fades to black and fades back in, and there are no facial animations, aside from the lip-syncing.
8. Adding to the Clothes reward, in the PC version, despite the fact you can change clothes, it does nothing to impact the game, and changes absolutely nothing.
9. The camera in this version is practically useless, all you can do is take a screenshot from the game that saves on your computer's hard drive, that's it.
10. The cutscenes in the PC version look even worse, due to terrible resolution because of the video compression, most likely for those who don't have large space on their HDD, to save enough space for the computer.

Forever Diamondz

1. Despite the fact there are a lot more locations, they are empty for the most part, speaking of which, there are some where you’re only for a short amount of time.
   • Speaking of which the New York map (which is set in winter), especially looks the worst due to the ugly snow textures and poor nighttime lightning.
   • The Beach map on the other hand has an very ugly color palette, especially for the sun.
2. The pet section introduced in this game (which would be later carried in The Movie), feels like an unnecessary forced addition, just an excuse to make the game superior, all the pets do is follow you around the town and often there would be a minigame related to them.
3. The GBA version has pointless minigames during the story, with the worst being the driving section because all you do is drive to the goal, there are no obstacles aside from oncoming traffic, and the truck moves so slow, which unnecessarily lengthens the game.
4. In the DS version after you apply make-up, it just automatically disappears, for some reason, most likely the game was not coded properly.
5. The DS version has really boring minigames as well such as at the beginning where you ride a horse, but the obstacles are hard to react, making it impossible to finish, also the obstacles are sometimes hard to see.

The Movie

1. False advertising: Despite the title, the game is based on the TV show instead of the live action movie that released the same year.
2. As mentioned above, the story is easily the worst here, the way how it follows the TV series is poor, and doesn't follow the episodes in the right order, making it confusing.
   • This is especially confusing to those who haven't watched the TV series, because they will have absolutely no idea or no clue what is going on.
   • Also the story has some ridiculous and nonsensical moments, such as the part with the squirrels.
3. It introduces Music Rhythm minigames, which are nothing, but rip-offs of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, it is also too easy, regardless of what difficulty, all you need to do is press the button at the right time when it reaches the corner, this is easier in the Wii version since you only use the A and B buttons.
4. The pet posing minigame is very lazy, as it is just the posing minigame, except you have a pet instead of one of the girls, the animations for the pets are also poor.
5. This one has obvious template/assets reusage, such as the obvious re-usage of the London map from Rock Angelz, The New York and the inside the truck location from Forever Diamondz, looking them side by side you can obviously see that they just reused the maps with no changes at all.
6. The GBA version has also worse character sprites than in the previous 2 games on GBA as when they talk, they don't even move their lips, which is odd because in the previous 2 games they did.
7. There is a forced cutscene where the Tweevils get chased by squirrels. Not only is this filler, but it's very stupid.
   • The audio mixing is also bad since you can barely hear what the characters are saying. The character models also glitch throughout the cutscene.

Girlz Really Rock

1. The new map (Camp Starshine) is much smaller than Stylesville (though the game still allows you to go to Stylesville).
2. Alot of the bad qualities from the previous games return, but are even worsened here, for the following reasons.
3. The makeup section has been severely simplified, with less options, and it's more limited, unlike in the previous games, you can't paint the whole face as well.
4. Due to the removal of Roller Skates the travelling is slower than ever, though the main map is smaller.
5. Not only that the Music Rhythm Minigames are still simple, but in here, they play a much bigger part, making the game really repetitive, also the animations during them are actually worse than in The Movie, as they don't sync up to the song, this is especially if when all the girls play the song, also you still have to just press a button at the right time, on the harder difficulty the only difference is that the speed of the buttons will increase.
6. It has a questionable minigame selection screen, because you got thrown into a cabin, this makes sometimes hard to pick which option you wanna pick.
7. Unlike the previous games, there's a severe lack of innovation, which feels more like a quantity over quality, though even if the game does feel slightly different, the differences seem to make it just for the worse than for the better.
8. The minigames are even more boring than in the previous games, for example at the start of the game, you are skydiving, by falling through rings, (remind you of something?), and at the end of the after mentioned minigame, you have to do a pose.
   • The golf minigame is also really boring, due to how slow it can get, and the ball physics are awful, making it harder to even get the ball in the hole.
9. Unoriginal storyline that feels like some sort of rip-off of High School Musical and Camp Rock, this is obvious with the opening cutscene.
   • Also the first chapter is weird, the girls all miss the bus for the camp, but then a girl (presumably Katia from the Bratz: Genie Magic movie) comes there to tell them to go to a plane and sky dive to the camp instead.
10. The game looks and feels unfinished, especially even compare to the previous games, as it is filled with the brim with bugs and glitches, also due to the bugs and glitches the game is impossible to finish.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Though despite the bad voice acting, it at least uses the same voice actors as from the TV show (the season 1 cast in the first three games and the season 2 cast in the fourth game).
2. The make up section (at least in Rock Angelz, Forever Diamondz and The Movie) can be fun to mess around with.
3. Girlz Really Rock did at least try to change some things, despite obviously being worse than the previous 3 games.
4. The Movie is easily the best of the 4, despite it's awful storyline, as it isn't as repetitive as the previous games, and it improved a few issues.

Reception

Although there are fans of the Bratz dolls who like these games, they often than not were for the most part, and all the games were poorly received by critics. Rock Angelz received mixed reviews from critics, holding a 50/100 on Metacritic indicating Mixed or Average reviews. Caddicarus called it the original worst PS2 game he ever owned until Dalmatians 3. Forever Diamondz, The Movie and Girlz Really Rock, on the other hand, don’t have a Metascore on Metacritic.

Trivia

• Despite the fact The Movie is not actually based on the movie, coincidentally the same year another Bratz game titled Bratz 4 Real came out for PC and Nintendo DS, and it was actually an adaptation of the movie.
• Girlz Really Rock was the last Bratz game to be released on consoles, as all the ones following them were only released for handhelds and mobile platforms.
• Rock Angelz was also going to be released on the original Xbox, but that version was cancelled for an unknown reason.
• There's a bug if you play Rock Angelz on the Dolphin emulator, where the make-up and photos you have taken won't save.
• Rock Angelz is the 2nd Bratz game to be released, with the first being Bratz on PC (Later ported to the PS1 and Gameboy Advance), However Ubisoft previously planned to release Bratz: Formal Funk for the GameCube, but it was most likely cancelled due to Ubisoft losing the rights from MGA (the company who owns the Bratz dolls).
• Rock Angelz has sold over 1.4 million copies, and also received a platinum hits release for the PS2 along with Forever Diamondz. The Movie and Girlz Really Rock however didn’t receive a platinum hits release.

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Rock Angelz

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Forever Diamondz

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The Movie

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Girlz Really Rock

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