PC Game Review: Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces

Jojo Cruz stunned the casual games world with her Jojo’s Fashion Show entry. After a runaway success, she returns with her daughter Ros in Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces hopes of capturing fashionistas’ hearts again with the latest fashions.

So you know, Las Cruces most references the mother daughter clothing line — rather than the city — team in plural as Spanish turns Cruz into Cruces. Well, three years of high school Spanish comes in handy after all! It only took 20 years.

For those not familiar with Jojo, the game doesn’t quite fit the time or business management genre. Maybe we need a new one for reality games as more hit the casual games runway including Hell’s Kitchen and the latest Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year. We learn about the latest fashion trends ranging from Bollywood and Foxhunt to provocative and military. Every style comes with a description of the types of shoes, tops, and bottoms that make it that style.

Working behind the scenes where few see the frantic activity of designers dressing up the models, we must make do with our existing clothing inventory to send models out in the styles in which they need to appear. A style appears above each model and we must dress them up to match that style as best as we can with what we have available. I can’t always remember what makes a style based on the inventory I have, so I click on the style to review it again. Thank goodness for this feature.

Let’s say our male model needs to dress up athletic style. Shirt, check. Shoes, check. All three pairs of pants fall under military style. What to do?? Well, either just pick one and pray the shoes and shirt will score high enough to get you three or more stars or take advantage of a power up (bonus) if you have shuffle, which lets you change the inventory. Later on, you can earn power ups that will dress up the model for you. You’ll also be able to accessorize to boost that je ne sais quoi.

Stylin’ new features in Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces include men’s clothes, male models, and a photographer. The photographer brings a new game in between runways where we hunt down the model with the style that fits the one you must match. Once spotted, you need to aim (no cutting off the head or feet) and snap the model. Nice idea, but dull after one round.

On occasion, the Show Climax feature enters the show giving you multipliers of 2x, 3x or whatever points for your outfits. So score 1,000 on a 2x Show Climax and you score 2000 instead. The other one, Double Time, has you spraying and praying because you must throw on an outfit with less time than normal and pray it makes a winner.

Jojo’s works well because you can’t predict what will score 500 vs. 1200. You’ve seen fashion (Academy Awards, for one) that looks horrendous that experts (so they call themselves) praise. Sometimes, pulling an outfit together with a limit inventory creates a style that you wouldn’t put on your pet and it scores one of the highest. That’s fashion for you… anything goes.

Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces brings you more of the same with a couple of enhancements. You feel as if you’re attending the same fashion show with new clothes and maybe a few neat touch ups. Some will think the original is better while others see the follow up as an opportunity to get more of Jojo. No matter which side you’re on, Jojo is an original … period.

Download Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces.