Christina Aguilera: Follow Your Dreams allows players to get to know their favorite Grammy-winning artist a little bit better. With an extensive collection of photographs and voice clips provided by Christina Aguilera herself, users are encouraged to follow their own dreams, whether those dreams include a career as a performer or some more down-to-earth goal. Follow Your Dreams includes a number of components for girls to explore. First and foremost is the singer's scrapbook, a collection of dozens of pictures of Aguilera as a child and young adult. Clicking through the pictures--and their captions--will give users a sense of both the hard work and bright moments that made up Aguilera's early career. The scrapbook also contains mementos, such as promotional stickers for Aguilera albums and one of her first business cards. Well-organized and incorporating a range of moods from sassy to silly, the album offers fans insight into a popular singer's professional journey, making her more accessible along the way.
The remainder of Follow Your Dreams lacks much substance. Players can choose between four game-like activities--two types of personality tests, a fortune-telling card game, and a virtual sticker album--to learn about themselves and their own dreams. On the plus side, Aguilera herself is quick to assure gamers that there is no right answer to any of the personality questions. However, the analysis generated by the quizzes is on the superficial and generic side, vastly inferior to those offered in other programs of the same type. Similarly, the card game does nothing but generate random cards, giving the player little to do but read the fortune cookie-style pronouncements. More sophisticated players will find these activities passive, unchallenging, and repetitive.
Fans of Aguilera's music and videos are sure to enjoy this program, though, especially if it's played as a group activity. The photo album is not to be missed, and the you-can-do-it optimism of the package and its overall good- natured style give it definite rainy-day appeal. (Ages 8 and older) --Alyx Dellamonica
