Have You Played... Secret Agent Barbie?

Wheeewy, Barbie had some pretty amazing careers back in the day didn’t she? From being a super sports superstar, a world class horse rider, amazing vet, to clued-up detective, she’s certainly had all the careers you wanted when you were a kid. At least she gave you the opportunity to live out her best lives in the form of a videogame, I suppose.

I had a lot of the Barbie games on PC, I’m not going to sit here and pretend I didn’t, but my favourite one is Secret Agent Barbie (I mean was, I don’t still play them, but I probably would if my PC had a disc drive still). The horribly gross neon hues of the game’s tutorial is enough to give anyone a migraine, which I suppose is why it was never marketed at stressed-out adults, but her outfit choices were on point for every event. Stealthy outfits, athletic outfits and ball-gowns, all to fit different occasions. Barbie’s mission is to stop the creation of an invisibility suit.

Barbie sets off around the world to Paris, New York, Egypt, Tokyo, and Rio to stop these bad guys, and I’m not being funny but it was one of the most exciting games I ever played. Released in 2001, I was only eight when this came out, and hadn’t had much experience with videogames that weren’t Batman Vengeance, or Word Rescue, but Barbie and her massive array of careers is certainly someone to thank for me being able to write on this site today.

Solving puzzles, sneaking around, wearing disguises, and visiting new places was what made this game great. I loved that her base was on some random aeroplane that was always in the sky. She really must’ve racked up those air-miles. And contributed to a lot of pollution.