LINE Play 101: Basic App Functions + Review

LINE Play
     Line Play is a social game application that involves creating an avatar and dressing up, playing games, meeting new friends, chatting, hanging out with users, updating your diary, decorating your home and more.
     Because this app has a lot of features (Some of which are hidden), I intend to make the LINE Play app into a series of updates.  Each one covering how to fully utilize one of the many features.  I will include helpful hints and some features many users didn't realize existed.  For now, let's just go over the basic functions, and the pros and cons of this app.
     When you first create your account, you can do so by linking either a Facebook, Twitter or LINE account.  When building your avatar, you can use a photo of yourself that the app will use to try and create a character that looks the most like the real you.
     There are 3 types of avatars.  Choose wisely, because you can not change your avatar type, once you have decided on it.  The types are male, female and animal.  These three avatar types will grant you access to the items for that avatar type.  This means male avatars can only access male avatar items.  Animals can only access animal items.  Lastly, female avatars can only access female items.  If you intend to create an animal type, be aware that animal avatar items are a mix between male and female, but sway heavily toward female.  So animals get more froufrou dresses than suits.
     You've built your avatar!  Now to explore the basic functions.  The landing screen changes frequently, so it may not look the same to you as you read this, as it does when I am typing it.  However, generally the landing screen gives you access to the more popular functions in the app.  Your home, the lounge, the mini games, the gacha, etc.
     The top should display notifications from friends on the top left (It looks like a little bell).  This will tell you whenever your friends update their diary, comment in your diary or guestbook, give you a heart or send you a gift.
     Top right shows your daily quest status, Cash and Gems.  The cash is a paid currency that gives you access to cash only gacha, events and certain features in the mini games.  The gems are the free in game currency that you use for gem gacha, shoppes, events or other items in the mini games.  You also have the option of buying more gems.  However, gems are easy enough to earn.
     Daily quests are tasks that can be performed every day to earn you extra gems.  For more details on daily quests, I will be adding a post specifically about those later.
     On the bottom there are a few buttons.  Let's cover those.  First is the Friends button.  Clicking this will show you all of the users you have added to your friend list.  Clicking the individual users on the list brings up a little box that shows their current avatar, their "status", whether or not they are online, their hearts, friend count, a block button (For people you dislike), a visit button (To access their home), a chat button (For PMing them), a diary button (To access their diary.  There will be a little red N above it if they have new posts), and a gift button (To buy them an item from the gift shoppe).  You can also delete friends from this list by clicking the gear button in the top right.  You can search for friends (For those who have large lists) with the search bar function at the top of the screen.
     Back on the landing page, next to the friends button at the bottom is the Chat button.  This is used when you have an open chat with someone on your friend page.  If there is a red dot above it, you have a new message.  You can access all of your private chat logs via this section.  You can also delete old chats.  You can only private chat with people on your friend list.  Also, all private chats are one on one.  No group chat feature has been added to this area.

     The next button on the bottom of the landing page is the Add button.  This is for adding new friends or accepting friend invites.  You can also use it to search for users if you know their username.  You can also use it to browse through the official avatars (Avatars include Cherry, Cancam, James, Rilakkuma, Hello Kitty, Betty Boop, Snoopy, Katy Perry and more).
     The add area also has the "Invite" function.  This is a great way to earn extra gems if you are still a new user.  You can add up to 100 friends from your LINE or Facebook.  Each time you invite someone, you earn 1000 gems!  Additionally, there are unlockable discounts in this area.  Once you have invited 50 friends you will unlock a 90% off Face Shoppe (one time use) discount.  This allows you to change your face.  Invite 100 users and unlock a 90% off Deluxe Room (A larger house to add more items into) discount (Also one time use).

     The last button at the bottom of the landing page is the "More" button.  This is the best button.  It gives you access to almost every part of the app.
     At the top of the "More" page we have 4 buttons.  Profile, Closet ,Diary and Settings. (See image to the right)
     Profile takes you to where you can change your username and "status" message.  You can also change your badge and see how many friends and hearts you have earned.  You can change the background colour of your avatar's icon, set your avatar picture as your profile image on LINE, use your avatar in the LINE Camera app, check your invitation code, delete your avatar or log out.
     Every user has an invitation code.  Copy this code and give it to people to use.  Every time someone uses your code, you and they both get 1000 gems.  Every time you use someone else's code, you both get 1000 gems as well.  However, you can only enter 10 codes, ever.  Also, only 20 people can ever enter your code.  Once 20 people have entered your code, it becomes invalid.

     The Closet (On the "More" page again) is where you can dress your avatar.  You can also recycle clothing you don't want.  I will go into that more in a future update.
     The Diary is where you can post images and write updates.  People can view your diary, add "like" stickers and comment on the posts.  The diary is also where your guestbook is.  People who stop by may leave messages for you here.
     Settings is where you can access many features.  You can access your profile from here (Though that seems odd since you could access it from the more page already), buy gems, see how you have been spending your gems (Though it doesn't always update, so it isn't great at keeping track), see where your gems have come from, buy cash, buy hearts and check for extra hearts, read notices (Updates for the app), change your notification settings, toggle your sounds, change the language of the app, toggle your keyboard sounds, adjust your privacy settings (Allowing people to search for you, seeing who you have blocked, etc), manage your storage, view help and about sections of the app.
     Back on the "more" page, under the top 4 buttons we have all of the main sections of the site.
Gacha: Where you can pay gems or cash to try and get random items out of special coin machines.
Shop: Were you can spend gems to buy items for your avatar or room.
Game: Where you can access the app's mini games section.  (There are currently 4 mini games.  I will go into detail about them in a future update)
Lounge: Where you can chat with other users in public rooms.

     I am going to give a fair warning about the Lounge, while we are on the subject.  If you are 13 or under in the US, you are not supposed to access the lounge (According to Line Play TOS).  If you are a parent of a child intending to use this application, I would be wary about allowing them to access the lounge area.  Teens and young adults often discuss incredibly inappropriate things publicly in the lounge.  Anything from cursing and vulgar name calling to descriptions of sexual activity and violence.  The LINE Play lounge is no place for a young person.
     Under these sections on the "more" page are the last 5 selections.
Cash: To buy cash currency with real money.
Gem: To purchase gem currency with real money.
Heart: To buy hearts with real money.
Event: Access any current event LINE is currently holding.  These usually are random gacha events.  You can also enter coupons or gift codes here, if you have any.
Official Facebook: Will take you to the official LINE Play Facebook page.
Notices: Same as in the settings area, this takes you to the updates section.
     Now let me discuss my take on the app.  I have been playing since October of 2014.  I am playing on the newest version of iOS.  I always update the iOS and app right away, when updates are available.  The app has issues with crashing.  My app crashes on a daily basis.  Sometimes several times within a session (anywhere from 0-7 times an hour).  The app makes your phone run hot.  It will overheat, the longer you run the app.  It also drains the battery, so the phone should really be plugged in while playing for extended periods of time.
     I have a female avatar and find that there is little available for any females not wanting to dress like a baby doll.  The dresses tend to be over the top frilly and cutesy.  Which is great, if that's your style.  Not so much if it isn't.  Many female users play with male avatars because of this fact.
     The lounge can be incredibly offensive.  The 10 and 20 user rooms are the worst.  Avoid those if you want a conversation that is less vulgar.  The 5 user rooms are hit or miss.
     The mini games are fun, though they have limited plays and you will need to wait for the power to refill to play the games more.
     The gacha have a lot of themes, which are good.  They have a lot of limited time gacha to get items that wont be available later, which I like.  However, many gacha are 3000 gems a play, and some gacha are cash only.
    The art for the app is clean and attractive.  I believe the graphics are the main feature that attracts many users.
     I find the chat bubble text in the squares to be a bit small.  I have difficulty reading it.  This is an issue for me.  It is not so bad in the lounge chat rooms, however.
     When you reply to comments in your diary, it does not notify the person you are replying to.  I find this to be something that could easily be addressed, but has not been thus far.  It's an easy fix that I am disappointed to find has not yet been dealt with.
     In conclusion I think it's a cute app, but the community can be a bit off putting.  If not for the community I would call this a tween-teen app.  However, because of the community conversation, I would say teen and up would be more appropriate.  The app has a lot of bugs/issues that have been present for a long time, that have not been fixed, regardless of constant updates.  All of the updates seem to feature adding new gacha or changing the appearance of the app, rather than addressing the actual usability.  Because of this I can not give this app a very high rating.
Rating: 3/5

• Free
• Category: Social Networking
• Updated: Feb 25, 2015
• Version: 2.9.2
• Size: 82.5 MB
• Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Thai, Traditional Chinese
• Seller: LINE Corporation
• © LINE Corporation

Rated 4+

Polyvore

Polyvore
     A great app for individuals interested in fashion, interior design, or just shopping or being creative.  Polyvore features a wide selection of clothing, beauty supplies, interior decor and more.  It even allows you to create your own collections, sets, and heart the things you really love.  Find friends that like the same things you do and share fun finds!

     When you create your account the application will show you a few items that you will have to choose your favourites from.  This will help the application understand what your personal style is to help it determine what should be displayed on your feed.  If you don't like any of the options, don't fret.  You can unheart them later.
    Your feed are suggested content for you to view along with any content from other users or official accounts you are "following".  I will get into that later.  You can browse your feed to view items to heart or inspire you.  You can click them to find out where to buy them and how much they cost.  Along with additional options. It also shows how many other users have liked that particular item.  You can see an example of this in the screen shot to the right.
     The buttons at the bottom determine what part of the application you are viewing.  Switching from the feed to the browse button will allow you to search for specific keywords with the search bar at the top.  You can also browse their predetermined categories, which change regularly, depending on what is currently trending.
     You can also use the search bar to find your friends by typing in their Polyvore username.
     The create button will take you to a black page where you can add content, flip it, cut it out, add other items that go with it, to create your own set.  You can create a clothing set that you would love to wear or a bedroom set for the future home of your dreams.  You can even play with magazine pages, art and text.
     To the right you can see some examples of sets I created.  For more samples you can visit my Polyvore page by clicking here.
     Lastly, let's cover the "Me" button.  From here you can add a profile image and change your username (The username can only be changed once.  This is because the username becomes your URL).  You can see how many views your sets have gotten (And how many hearts), browse your sets and collections.  See what you've hearted.  You can see the users you have added, and who has followed you.
     From here, you can also decide to unheart things if you decided you no longer like it.  You can delete sets and other basic profile maintenance.

     Here's where it gets a bit not picky for me...  Look at the screen shot to the right.  This is apparently a list of all the users I follow... This is day one of joining the app... The odd part?  I never added any of these people.  The app automatically adds a bunch of popular and official accounts to your follow list to control what appears on your feed.  I dislike this feature.  I want to add who "I" want to add.  On the bright side, you can remove these users from your follow list.  On the down side, this is done manually, one at a time.  I would highly suggest doing this first.  Or at least the first day.  Once you get all of those out of the way, you can start adding people you actually want to follow!
     All in all, I enjoy the application.  It's easy to navigate and has a clean and simple layout.  I love being able to easily put together sets (I used to do this manually with Photoshop.  This is so much easier).  I don't like the forced following feed, but this isn't a big deal, since those accounts can be easily removed from your feed, if you want.  I would say this is the perfect app for anyone into design, be it fashion, clothing, magazine, etc...  Plus, it's free!
Rating: 4/5

• Free
• Category: Lifestyle
• Updated: Feb 24, 2015
• Version: 4.6.1
• Size: 23.1 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Polyvore
• © 2015 Polyvore, Inc.

Rated 12+ for the following:

• Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
• Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
• Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
• Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity
• Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
• Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

Paris Chic: Cute Dress Up game

Paris Chic App for iPhone
     Remember the application I reviewed a while back called Emily's Wardrobe?  This application is very reminiscent of that.  However, it is not made by the same people.  This is an application brought to you by the creators of Chibi Me.
     The artwork is very soft and cute.  I really enjoy the look of this application.  With the exception of some of the clothing.  You can see in the screen shots that some of the clothing is very... poorly done.  For example the blue coat you see to the right.  If the clothing folds and outlines are black or dark brown, but the colour is baby blue, it stands out and looks tacky compared to the soft detail of the other items..  The lines are too hold and take away from the look of the item.
     Alright, art critique aside... This is a cute dress up application (Paper doll).  So let's go over the basics...
     When you begin the application you'll see the loading image to the right and music will begin.  A very peppy tune.  When it;s finished loading you will be on the main dress up page to the left.  She will always begin with that outfit on.
     Starting from the bottom left and moving our way up and around, I will now go over the buttons.
     Wallpapers:  this will change what the background, behind the doll looks like.  Swipe across the bottom to browse the available papers.  There are 17 wallpapers.  Some have furniture and such printed onto it.
     Knickers: There are 13 pairs of under garments.  They all look exactly the same.  they simply have different colours.
     Face: There are 30 faces.  They are divided by eye colour.  The available colours are black, purple/violet, A reddish brown, Brown, Blue and 'dots'.
     Socks:  There are 11 pairs of socks and tights.  You also have a remove option for you to remove the socks/tights.  In case you'd rather not have any on.
     Hair: There are 10 hair styles.  I feel like more hair styles could have been added.  Many are just the same style with another coour. There are 5 actual styles.  The colours available (Not in every style) are brown, blonde, pink, black.
     Outerwear:  There are 9 coats as well as a remove button.  There are 4 different coat styles.  Some with multiple colours.
     Bottoms: There are only 7 bottoms available.  One pair of denim trousers and a few different colour skirts.  There is a remove option here as well.
     Tops: A remove option and 15 tops.  There are 9 styles, some with multiple colours available.
     Accessories: A removal option is available here.  Sadly only one accessory can be added at a time.  So you can't have glasses and a scarf.  it's one or the other.  There are only 10 accessories. Three necklaces, a pair of hair clips, sunglasses, 3 scarves, A pair of earrings and some glasses.
     Hats: Oh course there is a remove option again.  There are only 5 hats.  Most are all the same hat with different colour choices.  There are 2 unique hats.
     Shoes: A removal option is available.There are 12 pairs of shoes.  Sneakers, slip on shoes, boots.  No pumps.
     The music note button is a Music Toggle.  You can turn the music on or off with this button.
     The Heart takes you to a screen that shows you the website URL.  It's a bit... dull looking.  I think they could have done more here.
     The Diskette is a Save function to save the outfit to your device.
     The little bird can share your creation via Twitter.
     The Dice give you a random outfit.
     The last button is the Shoppe option.  There is one free pack available here.  Some of the items I mentioned in the counts were from this pack as I installed the free pack before counting.  There is also a "Cute Pack" (56 items), Halloween Pack (35 items) & Cute Pack 2 (65 Items).  Each pack costs 99 cents.
     This is a cute and simple application.  I don't entirely know if I consider those add on packs to be worth 99 cents each.  It doesn't look like it took long to draw the clothing as they aren't shaded at all.  But the look is very unique.
     The application is free so if you like paper dolls you might enjoy this.  I liked the soft colours it had.  Not sure if i'd consider this to be Paris Chic fashion, but it's cute, nonetheless.
Rating: 3/5

• Free
• Category: Games
• Updated: Dec 07, 2012
• Version: 3.0
• Size: 33.1 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Ceren Gazioglu Majoor
• © Ceren Gazioglu Majoor

Rated 4+

Thumb

Thumb App for iPhone
     Have you ever wondered if those trousers make you look fat?  Does that hair cut really work for you?  Are you too old to be watching Pokemon?  Need an honest, unbiased opinion?  This is the place to get it.
     This application was fun for the first week or so, but I lost interest pretty quickly, after that.  I got tired of scrolling through questions that weren't actually questions at all.  Questions targeted toward a specific person (Hello, these are all publicly posted, why would you do that?), and tons of "Am I hot?" "Do I have Swag?" and "Who is cuter, me or my friend?" questions.
     I'm going to cover the basics of this application to give you an idea of all the content and customization involved.
     After creating your account you can upload a photo of yourself or use a picture from the internet.  Maybe a cover from your favourite Beatles album.  You can start asking questions right away, but I suggest not plunging into the deep end right away.  Baby steps...
     Clicking the "Vote" button at the bottom will load a random question.  You can give the question a thumbs up, a thumbs down or a neutral vote.  You can also add a comment along with your vote, if you want to.  However, type your comment first.  Once you press the thumb, it loads a new question.
     If you don't like the questions you're getting you have some options.  Clicking the "Vote" button again will sometimes load a new question.  Sometimes it'll just keep loading the same one, even if you've already voted on it.  You can select neutral to skip a question.  You can also select what categories you want in your search.  Don't want political questions?  Uncheck them.  Want to only get questions about fashion?  Uncheck everything but the Fashion option.  It is 'supposed' to only give 25+ age people questions asked by other 25+ age people, and the same for people under 25.  However, everyone in the community has noticed that this doesn't happen.  Someone needs to get off their bum and fix the coding.
     Each question requires an image.  So sometimes people will just grab a random image to go along with their question.  If you are asking a question and don't have an image you want to add, it allows you to grab one from the internet through the application.  You can do a search for a word or phrase and it will load a few images that are related to that.  Choose the one you want to use and stick it on your question.
     The Get Opinions button is where you go to ask questions.  Once you ask something you can keep track of the votes by clicking the "Response" button at the bottom.  It'll update with every vote.  When people add comments you have the option of replying to the comment or even giving them a star.  A star is added if you liked their comment.  The amount of stars people get are listed on their profile.  The more stars, the more comments of theirs that people enjoyed.  Getting a lot of stars in a certain category can make them in expert in that category!
     Sometimes commenting on questions, or replying to comments is really great.  You can share ideas, discuss opinions and even make new friends.  However, sometimes you'll end up regretting it, and wondering why you bothered to try talking to someone that obviously seemed like they weren't someone you should be associating with.  Comment with care.  However, you can always block people that you don't like.  You can also close a conversation by clicking the stop icon in the top right of the conversation page.  This will stop you both from people able to make any more comments in that thread.
     Want to see if any of your comments on questions have gotten replies or stars?  Click the "Your Comments" tab under Responses to do this.  Scroll down and see how it went!
     Your profile is where your avatar and a brief description you write goes.  It lists how many stars and ratings you've tallied.  You can also add thumb up and thumb down icons to the bottom.  These aren't questions.  This is a "Likes and dislikes" style area.  If you like sushi but hate beef, make a Thumb up for sushi and a thumb down for beef!  people that visit your profile can see your thumbs and even add them to their own profile.  Likewise, you can visit other people's profile and add their interests to your profile.
     There is also a friending system.  Whenever someone on your friend list asks a question it will show up in a special section.  You can choose to answer it or delete it if you don't want to.
     I think this is an interesting concept.  I feel like the application, minus a few issues (Like the age divider not working), is solid.  The community is a bit lacking, however.  When it comes to social media, it always boils down to the community quality.  For me, it just wasn't a high quality.  There are some gems in there, but most of the users are just there to get attention or cause problems for other people.
     Not sure I recommend this application.  I feel like maybe it'll improve as it grows and the community matures.  It'll be interesting to watch and see how it goes.  If you decide to try it out, let me know how your experience was.
Rating: 3/5

• Free
• Category: Social Networking
• Updated: Dec 12, 2012
• Version: 3.8.3
• Size: 8.1 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Thumb, Inc.
• © 2012 Thumb, Inc.

Rated 12+ for the following:

• Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence
• Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
• Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
• Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
• Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
• Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity

Princess Story

Princess Story App for iPhone
     Want to be a princess?  Or perhaps you'd just like to dress one up?  This is an interesting game where you dress, train, feed and primp your very own princess.  make her look like you.  Make her look how you wish you looked.  Make her look crazy.  The sky is the limit!
     Before I get into this, I want to point something out.  You see how the princess is holding a fan in that launch screen?  The app page also has a screen shot of the actual doll in the game holding a fan... There are no holdable items in this game.  That is very misleading.  That's going to take points away.
     You start off in your princess knickers.  You have a steward who helps you to learn the basics of the game.  She gives you quests to complete while you are playing.  She stands directly outside of your bedroom door.  You can always find her when you are in the hallway. She is the only person out there, besides the chef.  If the book she's holding is glowing, you have a new quest.  If the book standing on a pedestal is glowing, you have a new prince.

     The quests are simple.  It usually consists of collecting clothing or jewelry.  Buying new hairstyles and planting roses.  You have plenty of time to complete each quest.  I don't believe there is a time limit.  You can check your progress at any time by going back to her and clicking her.
     When you complete a quest, you'll receive a photo of a prince.  I have to say that most of these princes are very questionable.  They look a bit androgynous.  Examine the photo and turn it around for information about that prince.
     I have to note here that I completed every quest.  There are no quests left.  However, I am missing the last prince.  After I completed the last quest the application didn't grant me the last prince.  So this is very unsatisfying.  I hate having the gap there. (There are 8 princes in total, I'm missing number 6)
     Along with your princes, you'll receive money and experience for completing quests.  Money is spent on purchasing hair, eye colour, makeup, skirts, crowns, shoes, etc.  You can also spend it to purchase food from the kitchen (Why am I paying for my meals when I'm the princess & I live here?...)
     Below are some examples of the princes.

     You may wonder what the experience is for, right?  Your princess has levels.  There are 10 levels total.  You begin at level 1.  You gain experience by completing quests, planting roses or studying your subjects.  Going up levels will open up locked items in the shoppes for your to purchase.  You will also get a special crown for free, for each level you achieve.

     You can see an example of this to the right.

     There are several things to study.  However, you can go straight to the tough subjects.  The princess unlocks more things to study each time she levels.  You can always go back and study older subjects if you like.  Studying gives experience and money.  You can also get stars for any subject.  Get 3 and you have mastered that skill.  The higher the level of the subject, the more energy it costs to study it.  I will list the subjects in order by level.  The level they are unlocked on is the amount of energy it takes to study.  So level 5's skill takes 5 energy to study.
     1. Smile
     2. Table Etiquette
     3. Singing

     4. Archery & Horseback Riding

     5. Charity Work

     6. Figure Skating

     7. Arts & Crafts

     8. Royal History 101

     9. Musical Instrument

     10. Ballroom dancing

     Energy replenishes after time.  However, if you want to gain more energy right away, you can do so by eating food.  Go to the hallway and click on the kitchen door with the chef standing outside of it.  In the kitchen there are 3 chefs.  Each with a different dish.  Each dish costs a different amount of money and will provide a different amount of energy.  You can see what the price and energy is by clicking the screen capture to the left.

     I mentioned planting roses.  This is something you can do at any time.  There are 2 kinds of roses (They look the same).  10 minute roses and 1 hour roses.  The 10 minute roses will take roughly 10 minutes to grow to full maturity.  The one hour ones, an hour.  Don't you wish it were that easy in real life?  After they mature you tap them or swipe across a row to pluck them.  I assume you sell the roses, because they give you money.  They are free to plant, however.
     While they are growing you can roam about, leave the application, etc.  Just come back at the right time to pluck them.

     Let's discuss the bedroom.  You will start in the bedroom when you open the application.  You have a few options that you can choose from, while in this room.
     The screen to the left is the default style bedroom.  Clicking the paint roller gives you the option to change the way the room looks.  You can spend game money (Not real money) to change the floor, window, wallpaper or purchase furniture.  Apparently she sleeps on the floor.  She's the strangest princess, isn't she?  There is also only one furniture set available.  I purchased it.  It's very cute.  But costs 500 money if I recall.
     The disc icon will start a memory game.  You get one free play a day.  You can purchase more plays by spending the game money on tokens.  Turning over 2 matching cards wins a set.  Each set gives you 10 money.  You have 3 failures available.  If you fail 3 times, it's game over.  I've managed to turn over all but 4 cards before game over before.  I love memory games.
     The last icon is a little camera.  You can take a photo of your princess and share it via Facebook or save it to your device.  This has to be done for one of the quests.
     Alright, I know that the important part to most people downloading this is of course the clothing, makeup, etc.  So let's discuss that part now.
     Starting in the hallway, the furthest door to the left is the Clothing door.  Here you can purchase Stockings, Shoes, Bottoms and Tops.  Most bottoms have corresponding tops.  You can mix and match them, but sometimes it looks odd.  I went through almost half the game without any shoes... I didn't buy any until I needed to for a quest.  If you wear a big skirt, you usually can't even see the shoes or stockings anyway.
     Here is the count for items available.  Stockings: 10 (I bought 2), Shoes: 10 (I bought all), Bottoms: 31 (I bought 9), Tops: 26 (I bought 10)
     In any dressing room, clicking the top right icon of the square will toggle back and forth between full view and portrait view of your princess.  This makes matching clothing easier.
     Remember that certain clothing is only available at certain levels.  You can always buy something from a level below your own, but you can't even try on clothing from a level above your own.
     The next door is the Beauty room.  This is where you play with the doll herself.  Her skin, eyes, hair, etc.
     The categories and numbers are as follows Base: 4 (I have 2), Blush: 6 (I have 1), Lipstick: 6 (I have 4), Eye Shadow: 14 (I have 1), Contacts: 8 (I have 1), Eyelash: 14 (I have none, I didn't like how they looked), Eyebrow: 2 (I have 1), Hair: 64 (I have 15).  The eye shadow, blush and lipstick have a toggle on the side to increase or decrease how strong the colours are.
     The next room (And last room to cover in this review) is the Jewelry room.
     This is where you go to find your crowns when you gain a level.  You can also purchase different hair accessories, as well as necklaces and earrings.
     The numbers for these items are as follows.  Necklaces: 31 (I have 12), Earrings: 20 (I have 6), Head Accessories (Crowns, etc): 32, (I have 18).
     Now that the basic game play is covered, I wanted to go over some technical issues.
     The game does crash now and then.  Once it crashed so badly it locked my iPhone up entirely.  I wasn't even able to power it down.  I couldn't adjust the volume, lock the screen, restart, nothing.  I had to sit there and listen to that bloody song until my battery drained (I forgot to mention, there's background music.  Very midi, very repetitive  gets annoying pretty quick.  However, the music itself isn't bad.  Just gets tiresome after a few loops).
     If you leave the app in the background for a couple minutes, lock your screen, etc... then come back to the application it's going to restart.  The load screen will pop up and you'll be back in the princess' bedroom. The annoying part about this is that when you start the application up you'll get a pop up advertisement.  it covers the screen and has to be closed to continue.  This can get irritating.  There's also an ad banner at the bottom of the Training room page.  It disappears after a few seconds though.  Which is good because it covers the button for level 10 training.  You have to wait for it to disappear before you can click it.
     During the intro to the game quest, the steward's talk box sometimes glitches and says "Null".
     I already mentioned the final quest not granting me my last prince.  I'll never know who prince number 6 was!... Or why I should even care... Because other than having their photos and info to look at, I can't do anything relating to them.
     In case you're wondering how to mute the music... you can't.  You have to mute the phone itself to do this.  There is no sound toggle on this application.  It desperately needs one though.
     Don't want to earn your in game money?  There is always a small icon in the top right to use real money to get in game money.  You can even do ad offers to get some for free.  However, I find this pointless.  You can easily get all the money you need by playing the game.  it doesn't take long to beat either (Gain every level, complete every quest).  After that it's just collecting items for your own enjoyment.  but that can be tedious after a while.
     The graphics in the game are lovely.  Though the artist could maybe work on making men look a bit more like men and not manly women.  The clothing and beauty variety is very nice.
     I enjoyed the application.  It has some issues.  I'd like to see them fixed.  I don't see it happening though. I feel like the issues will get worse with later versions of iOS, since it hasn't been updated since July of 2012..
Rating: 3/5

• Free
• Category: Games
• Updated: Jun 01, 2012
• Version: 1.0.2
• Size: 25.2 MB
• Languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean
• Seller: Sino Joy Group Limited
• © 36 You Games

Rated 4+

LookBook.nu

Lookbook.nu App for iPhone
     Interested in fashion?  Want to get inspired?  This is a good place to start.  There are many styles in the look book.  Both for men and women.
     When you start the application up you'll see one of the fashion photos.  You can either swipe the screen to cycle through some other images, or you can tap the screen to bring up the menu.
     The top left icon will bring up a menu that allows you to sign up for LookBook.nu.  It also allows you to browse "Hot", "New" and "Top" fashion photos.  Under these options are a help option which will explain what lookbook.nu is.
     Back at the menu, top right rather than top left.  You'll see a button that says "Hype".  If you're logged in you can click the Hype button.  This is like giving the photo a Thumbs Up or a Like.  If you are not logged in and click the Hype button, it will send you to a log in screen. You can hype any photo you find really great or inspiring.
     Below are some samples of the fashion photos you may come across on this application.

     Back to the menu...  The bottom has a way to browse through the Hot, New or Top images.  It will be default be set to "Hot".

     You can click the bottom left icon to save any photos you really love.  The "i" icon on the bottom left takes you to the photo information page.  From here you can see what the photo poster has to say about the look, find out where each piece of the outfit can be purchased (Or at least the brand), view the colour scheme, view comments people have left on the photo and see how many people have hyped the photo (Among other things).

     From the information page you can also learn about the model/poster.  Their name, age and so on.  Click the icon of them and view their profile, where you can explore more of their looks.
     Because this is a community for fashion, all of the fashions are uploaded by actual people/users.  I have to admit that the quality of most of these photos are impeccable.  I'd love to learn their secrets for taking such amazing photos.
     So if you love fashion and browsing photos of people wearing really interesting outfits, this is a great app for you to try out.  it's absolutely free, so what do you have to lose?
Rating: 4/5

• Free
• Category: Lifestyle
• Updated: Nov 07, 2012
• Version: 1.0.4
• Size: 3.1 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: spacedock inc.
• © 2012 Spacedock Inc.

Rated 12+ for the following:

• Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
• Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor

Emily's Wardrobe

Emily's Wardrobe App for iPhone
     This is a cute digital paper doll.  Little Emily is a cute young lady who enjoys dressing her best.  Can you mix and match her wardrobe to give her an attractive new look?
     I really enjoyed the art style for this application.  The soft dull colours and the delicate curves of the drawings are very attractive to me.
     This app will load a tutorial when you start it up.  It's just a quick and simple image that shows the function bubbles, in case you have forgotten them from your previous use of the application, or if this is your first time using it.  Music will also start.  It's a catchy little MIDI tune.
     From bottom left to right: Overalls button changes her look.  The Polaroid camera is for saving and sharing your finished look.  The shopping basket is for purchasing new items for her wardrobe.  Lastly the speaker button is for sound and credits,.
     Let's start with the dressing up option (The first button).  As you can see from the screen to the left, the clothing is categorized by type.  Hair styles, Tops, Dresses, Trousers, Shoes and so on.  Click the type of clothing item you wish to switch out and the available options appear at the bottom of the screen. Swipe to scroll through them.  The item count is as follows: Backgrounds (9), Dresses (6), Legwear (4), Shoes (5), Hair Styles (3), Cover (7), Top (5), Trousers (4).  The accessory button has various inner categories.  Those counts are as follows: Headware (11), Glasses (3), Earrings (2), Necklace (3), Bracelet (4).
     You can also click the bottom right corner button on the dress up screen to randomly choose a new outfit.
     You can also play with little Emily.  Shake your device and she will become dizzy.  Poke her and she has 2 different reactions.  Petting/rubbing her has 2 different reactions.
     Saving your design with the save and share feature is simple.  Just click it and it saves to your device.  There is no auto upload feature in this application for Facebook or Twitter sharing.
     There are currently 2 clothing sets your can purchase to add to Emily's wardrobe.  Purchasing clothes not only gives you more than 50 new items to mix and match with, but it also removed the ad banners.  At 99 cents each I would say they are very reasonably priced.  One for Spring and one for Winter.
     The ad banners display at the top of the app.  This is common for a free application.  It doesn't interfere with the apps functionality.  None of the ads seem inappropriate so this application is safe for all ages.
     I really enjoyed this application.  Though I'm not much for playing with digital dolls too terribly often, I really did enjoy mixing and matching little Emily's clothing.  I do wish she had a few more hair styles, but it's possible the extra clothing sets come with more hair styles too.
     I think this application is a good download for little fashionistas in training or anyone who enjoys dress up games or paper dolls.  Who knows, you might even get some good ideas on what you can pair up in your real wardrobe.
Rating: 5/5

• Free
• Category: Games
• Updated: Aug 15, 2012
• Version: 1.4
• Size: 10.3 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Baosen Han
• © Infinity8 Studio

Rated 4+