Ari's Garden - Bratz: Rock Angelz

Jade is pale and has black hair. Sasha has dark brown skin and dark brown hair. Cloe is white with yellow blonde hair. Yasmin has brown skin and reddish brown hair. — Figure 1: The four main characters of the game. Left to right: Jade, Sasha, Cloe, Yasmin

Bratz: Rock Angelz (PS2) is an adventure game released in 2005 based on the movie of the same name. It was developed by Blitz Games and published by THQ. The game was also released on GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Microsoft Windows. The versions of the game for Game Boy Advance and Windows were entirely different games but with the same premise. Both the film and the games are based on the popular Bratz toyline. The game takes place in the aptly named Stilesville, where the Bratz live. During each phase of the game, the Bratz visit London, Paris, and the Midnight Mansion.

The opening cutscene of the game introduces one of our four main characters, Jade, excited to tell our other three main characters (her best friends Yasmin, Sasha, and Cloe) that she's landed an internship at Your Thing magazine (Figure 1). On her first day, however, she finds that her boss, Burdine Maxwell, has no interest in her article ideas. Instead, she is given a long list of menial tasks to complete as quickly as possible. Burdine is the queen of pink (Figure 3). Her office is pink, her magazine is pink, her dog even sports a pink haircut. It's immediately clear that Jade doesn't belong here (Figure 2).

Jade is pale with black hair. She wears a green vest and a matching green and white plaid skirt. She stands in an office where everything is pink aside from a red carpet. — Figure 2: Jade, looking very out of place in the Your Thing office.

Burdine is a slender white woman with blonde hair, dressed in all pink. She wears a tiara upon her head. — Figure 3: The queen of pink, Burdine Maxwell.

Worse yet, the two other interns are Kirstee and Kaycee, known as the infamous Tweevils (they're twins, and they're SERIOUSLY evil). The Tweevils sabotage Jade getting Burdine her lunch by calling in an order for a burger. Big shocker, Burdine is sent into a fatphobic rant about carbs and Jade is fired on the spot (as are her children and grandchildren) Burdine guarantees that Jade will never be hired at any magazine ever again.

We begin gameplay as Jade, returning to her friends to break the bad news. Hilariously, the tutorial is sprinkled into the voice lines. Jade says, "I feel so down, I can barely even bring myself to follow the arrow that's pointing towards the smoothie bar" (Figure 4). She continues to sigh and explain each piece of tutorial. It's incredible. When Jade returns to her friends, they decide to throw a small party for the four of them to cheer Jade up. At the party, the girls decide to start their own magazine. The game follows three magazine issues where each article is a quest.