Busy Scissors or Boring Scissors? You Decide!
Busy Scissors for Wii was compared to as the Halo of all hairstyling games, but is there really a worthy collection to compare it to? Sure, the concept seems catchy and fun, who doesn’t want to be a hairstylist and gossip all day? The problem is that there are so many flaws and a huge lack of excitement that makes it hard to play the game for more than a short period of time. Interestingly, Busy Scissors on DS is actually less aggravating, if you can believe that. While the game does follow the same concept, load times are abysmally long for Wii and blurred text that you’re offered when reading the journal is enough to have you throwing your scissors out the window!
Storyline
The storyline in this Redken-sponsored game is relatively simple. You basically start your career as an amateur stylist, eager to master new cuts and techniques so you can move up in the ranks. While this sounds very appealing, unfortunately the difficutly level doesn’t do much increasing. So, as you are advancing and become a successful stylist, your job is actually becoming less challenging (and interesting). Aside from moving through the ranks and expanding your clientelle, there is really not much here. It’s like being given the bottom of a muffin and wondering where the top delicious part is with all the crunchy goodness. You will want more with Busy Scissors but you just never receive it.
While there are six career levels that you earn your promotions through from Junior Assistant up to Salon Owner, you’ll never really feel accomplished.
Gameplay
Gameplay is ridiculously simply in Busy Scissors! While you want the game to offer some level of difficulty as you progress, it insists on holding your hand through everything. Every new appointment has an instruction card and at least 90 percent of your tasks including shampooing, parting hair and even adjusting the temperature of the water are all dictated to you so you really can’t screw up, nor are you permitted to think for yourself.
Busy Scissors provides you with an online marketplace where you can actually have a spark of a good time browsing through products that you may need to buy to use on a client. Of course, you need to earn a bit of money first, then you can purchase texturizers, mousse, etc. However, while this may be your only hope for fun in Busy Scissors for WII, the fact that this becomes so repetitive through the game and loads so slow causes it to lose its enjoyment, fast!
Onto the gossip! If you love to gossip you may actually like this game. Well, for a minute until you are told that you have given an incorrect reply. Your ranking seems to increase based on customer satisfaction and when they want to talk, a bubble appears and you have to make them happy. The one and only challenging part of the game is making an effort to remember which clients prefer honesty and which just want you to kiss up to them.
Graphics
The graphics for Busy Scissors are so mediocre that you might find yourself making sure you are actually playing on a Wii and not some ancient platform you have stored in a box in your basement. The characters will annoy you the most with their absolutely pathetic blank stares and if they don’t get to you, the music will! When your journal loads, it provides you with blurred text and the low-resolution environments are beyond painful to stare at past a short chunk of time.
Conclusion
While Busy Scissors for Wii promises a fun adventure to shampoo, cut, color, blow dry and launch your career, it delivers you a step-by-step boring guide. Everyone loves a bedtime story for awhile but eventually you really need to learn to sleep on your own. If only Busy Scissors allowed you to grow up!
