Written by Brandy Shaul
How do you know if a game is really great if you’re about a decade older than its targeted age bracket? After all, it may look great and play just as well when you’re as experienced as older gamers are, but how do you really know? When it came to Bella Sara, I was in just such a predicament.
From the second I saw my first card, I was drawn in by the beautiful designs and inspirational messages presented to young girls, but of course, most of the phrases didn’t apply to someone my age anymore. I’ve formed my own identity, and have luckily been taught these important lessons (stay true to yourself, don’t let others get you down, etc.) at home, but how would someone less experienced take them? The obvious answer to my conundrum was, of course, to play the game with someone who IS in the 8-12 age bracket, and that’s exactly what I did.
My niece Samantha, who will be turning eight in about a week, is the epitome of a girly-girl. Her favorite colors are pink and purple, she loves makeup and wearing lots of gaudy jewelry, and she will never turn down an opportunity to wear a dress.
She started reading the phrases on the cards, and it didn’t take her too long to start wondering what these lines of gibberish were at the bottom of each. “Why, that’s a code so that you can play with these things online.” The phrase had barely been uttered when she yanked me off of the floor by my arm and dragged me to the nearest computer. “I wanna play with them!” And who was I to deny this adorable little girl? So, off we went.
After loading all of my cards into our stable, we made our way to the games room. Starting with Cloud Jumper, which turned out to be her favorite, my niece guided her flying horse through the air as she picked the flowers from the clouds. The game is very simple: moving your mouse left and right causes your horse to do the same. Clicking repeatedly allows it to rise in altitude, while doing nothing lets it drop. While the speed of the scrolling background is quite slow, it did provide a bit of a challenge for Samantha, who left a few flowers behind along the way. However, after playing it a few more times, she seemed to have it down.
Another favorite of hers was Yin and Yang’s Game, a card matching activity which asks players to match sets of cards within a certain amount of time. The game will show you the undersides of the cards before the it starts in order to help younger players, which is a nice plus since a wide range of girls might be playing the game.
After playing more games, like Santo’s Knowledge Quiz (about horse anatomy and lifestyles) and putting together a few Jigsaw Puzzles, we headed back to the stable, where I’ve heard Samantha continues to spend the most of her time, now that she’s playing the game at home. There, you can feed, groom and otherwise interact with your pets. Specialty tools allow you to clean their horseshoes, and polish their coats, and along with apples, grain and other food items, the stable allows for the most in-depth gameplay found on the site.I sat down with my niece with a set of about 30 different Bella Sara cards, so generously provided to me by their maker, Hidden City Games, and watched as Samantha’s eyes lit up. The clichéd sounds of “oooo” and “ahhh” escaped from her mouth as she picked up each one in turn, completely disregarding the baby doll she had been playing with mere seconds before.
In order to add a bit of variety to the caretaking or horses, the game provides different “species”, if you will, of the horses available to collect. There are your basic, land based horses, while swimming and flying breeds also have a large place in the game. Swimming horses, then, have aquariums instead of stables, and the flying Pegasus types live in the trees.
Keeping with the theme of brightening the lives of little girls, small pictures are found in the stables that display messages of hope and inspiration like “Believe in the goodness of life”, and “Use your quick mind to solve your problems”.
I’ve been a gamer my entire life, and I have to honestly say that never before have I found a game so family and little girl friendly. Where most games are concentrated solely on violence or sex, Bella Sara is something completely opposite and unique. Sure, other games have combined the trading card and online worlds before, but never with such attention to real world details.
Bella Sara takes the bad messages that young girls see in magazines, like those about needing to be as thin as possible, and throws them out the window. It teaches girls that in order to be truly happy, you don’t need to be the skinniest, prettiest or even the most popular; you simply need to be yourself.
Even if it is aimed at young girls, Bella Sara is really perfect for everyone and is the paramount of inspirational gaming. Best of all, you are not required to buy any cards to experience the game, as you receive a free horse upon signup. Now you have no excuse to not experience this great world. So get out there!
Special thanks to Terri McCarthy and Hidden City Games for providing the cards to review.