Whenever I get up out of my chair, my knees make a little ‘click’ sound, and I do an involuntary exhale from the expended effort. This should tell you that I am not in the age bracket for Roblox. I do, however, have a soft spot for Dress To Impress, which has always felt to me like the perfect example of how user created games can conjure up communities that feel more special than the fans major conglomerates attract. As Dress to Impress steps out into the plasticky real world with a line of dolls, it feels like the game continuing to innovate.
I don’t quite understand the chaos of Roblox. It just feels like a bunch of nonsense, often weirdly edgy or unsettling. They say these sorts of sandbox games are like Lego, in that they are basic building blocks to create whatever you want. But with Roblox, it feels more like you’ve poured the Lego bricks onto the floor and are now stamping on them barefoot. What do you mean there’s a game where you lick school toilets? But Dress to Impress is largely free of this.
Dress To Impress Shows The Power Of Roblox
Dress to Impress is a game where you must dress to impress. You’re given a theme, character, or some other objective and must use the clothes and hair available to you to construct a suitable outfit, which is then graded by other players. While I’m sure there’s some toxicity and sniping in a game where the primary audience are teenage girls (indeed, the game’s creator Gigi was only 14 when it launched), it’s mostly a very wholesome playground where the objective is to fulfil your creativity.
It’s ironic that Dress to Impress arrived so close to the launch of Fashion Dreamer. Having grown up playing dress up games, I had felt the genre needed to take another step to evolve into the modern era, but was also aware that the games are simple by design, and there are only so many layers you can add before it stops being a dress up game and starts being a different sort of game with dressing up in it – Infinity Nikki managed to straddle this line well, but it is a narrow tightrope.
Fashion Dreamer made a deliberate shift away from you being a fashion designer into you being a fashion influencer, trying to offer a modern spin. But this left you trapped in a grey void of nothingness, wandering around pretending to like every outfit you saw to grow your follower count. So, in a way, it was the most accurate influencer sim ever made. But it was also dreadfully boring, and Dress to Impress making those organic connections between real people instead of a safe, simulated simulacrum is what took it to the next level.
Dress To Impress Collectible Dolls Are Coming Soon
And now, we’re getting Dress to Impress dolls. As an Old Person, I do have an unshakeable belief that computers are A Little Bit Bad. I know how to use them, I spend a lot of time on them myself, I see the obvious value the internet brings to the world… but I still sort of think children should be outside throwing a ball or running around in the mud or making daisy chains. Even though I also think consumerism is also A Little Bit Bad, as I sit here in an office full of plastic tat representing IP I am quite fond of, I find it encouraging to think of kids playing with actual dolls after seeing them in a video game.
For a while, it has seemed like everything is heading in the opposite direction. You don’t play with Barbies, or Bratz, or Monster High dolls, or Hot Wheels, or Transformers, or Lego for that matter. You play video game versions of them. Lego sales may be rising, but a good portion of those sales are people like me who want to remember a time when their knees didn’t click. It’s nice to see a swing back to physical toys, however much it might be a drop in the ocean that swims against the current.
The Dress to Impress collection will debut with ten Mystery Model dolls from PhatMojo, and while they will be sold in blind capsules – the world I grewed up in is gone – you’ll be able to interchange and customise their outfits, plus there’s a specific collector’s card for each doll. Only eight of the ten have been revealed thus far, but we won’t have to wait long as the set drops in April, when the dolls will be available for £12.99.
Roblox
- Released
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September 1, 2006
- Developer(s)
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Roblox Corporation
- Publisher(s)
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Roblox Corporation