Adventures with Barbie: Ocean Discovery (1997)

I mean, what could I expect from a 1999 Barbie game? Barbie Ocean Discovery is a minigame collection with some light story elements and progression.

The story is simple, however appreciated. Barbie finds a piece of a treasure map and needs to explore the ocean in order to complete the map and continue her search for the treasure. On the way, she explores a coral reef, sunken ship, and underwater society (like Atlantis).

You need to beat each minigame once, but if you play them multiple times then there are slight variations and bonus collectibles. You get a piece of sea jewelry for each additional minigame you play (up to 3 times per minigame). If you intend on playing Barbie’s Ocean Discovery then you should go for this. The variations are pretty cool and I think that Mattel went the extra mile here. This is all extra and really appreciated.

Overall, there is very little reason to play Barbie Ocean Discovery. These minigames have been done 1000 times before and 1000 times better… but there is a bit of charm here. I really appreciate the story and the bonus levels. Stuff like that is what makes this game stand out from other minigame compilations. I would only recommend this to extreme Barbie fans, but it's not awful if you randomly pick it up.

I was able to 100% it in 57 minutes and 47 seconds.