DIY Paper Doll

Genre: Misc.

Players: 1

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Review:

DIY Paper Doll, released on mobile devices in 2022 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2023, is a game where players select outfits for a paper doll, as well as the furniture and decor for various rooms in her house.

And that’s… pretty much it. There’s a framing device about selecting the right outfits for different occasions, but the game doesn’t seem to care what you pick, it lets you proceed regardless. There’s nothing you do here that seems to require any thought or puzzle-solving at all.

If we were looking at this as a toy rather than a game, that might be enough. After all, playing with real paper dolls doesn’t involve puzzles or goals, so this can work much the same way, right? The issue here is that you are extremely limited in your choices for what you can use to dress said doll in each of the game’s “levels”, just giving you a few dozen pieces to choose from. In one level, I only had the choice of two different hairstyles, and the game wouldn’t even let me proceed with the default style. In other words, if you’re looking for creativity in this game, expect to be stifled.

As for the presentation, this is mostly colorful cartoony 2D visuals with a bit of 3D as parts peel off of pages, with this joined by some really creepy AI-generated voices for a completely disposable story about going to school and hanging out with friends. This is all backed by lighthearted and extremely repetitive music.

Overall, DIY Paper Doll is a failure no matter which way you look at it. As a game, it’s pointless, as nothing you do seems to matter or require any thought at all. As a creative toy, it’s sorely lacking in choices and variety, leaving players without much creativity to draw from. Either way, if you really want to play with paper dolls, I think you’re better off just printing out some actual paper dolls and playing with those.

tl;dr – DIY Paper Doll is a game where you dress up a paper doll and decorate their house. However, the gameplay here is pointless, and there’s not enough variety to make this creatively fun. Real paper dolls are going to be more fun than this.

Grade: D-

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