Bonsai Barber review

Oh cruel game, how you mock this poor baldy reviewer with your hairdressing theme. A grade one clippering for every person who worked on it. Personal affronts aside, this is really rather good. They say there’s a fine line between genius and madness and Zoonami are tip-toeing along it with what is surely the world’s first game where you style vegetables’ hair. Yeah, you read that right.

You’re the town’s new barber, and the town is inhabited by various veg, fruit and other plants that nip into your salon on a regular basis to have their tops and leaves snipped, shaped and colored into the latest fashions. They’ll indicate the style they want, and you have to provide it using the tools of the barbering trade. You’ve got scissors, clippers, a comb, a paintbrush for dyeing and a spray can that will replenish leaves should there be an unfortunate accident.

It sounds easy on paper. It isn’t. The game implements the remote’s capabilities with aplomb, enabling you to twist and turn your blades using the tilt function, while A or B will snip or buzz. There’s an outline that you can trace around for each style, but you’ll need a very steady hand to make it perfect. Your customers are incapable of sitting still for long, meaning their foliage flaps about, and an errant snip at the wrong moment can be disastrous.

This all sounds like utter nonsense that you’d avoid like a Sanjaya perm, but it’s actually loads of fun and brimming with endearing, good-humored character. There are awards to collect, gifts to acquire, and your customers will send you postcards when they go on holiday. Utterly charming and completely nuts.

Jul 7, 2009