MTV Cribs: DJ Mansion

I might be wrong, but growing up, I seem to remember kids at my school wanting to do fairly normal and honourable things with their lives. Like becoming a fireman, vet, or – in my case – the leading star in a popular West End musical.

But from what I know of those now beginning to stand on their own two feet – both figuratively and literally - it's all about becoming famous for fame's sake.

What career advisers say to girls who waddle in with a phone strapped to their head a la Lady Gaga, or lads who think rapping on their mobile with their mates at the bus stop and uploading the video to YouTube will make them rich, I have no idea.

Mini game, big fame

Of course, some of these hopefuls do bizarrely have their 15 seconds, and one of the first things these largely talentless teens do when they have made it is flaunt their swanky-but-tacky pads on MTV for all the world to see.

MTV Cribs: DJ Mansion attempts to combine both their path to glory and the fame fuelled riches that accompany it, the basic task being to make as much money from your music as you can to kit out your new abode.

In truth, it follows a very similar path to the recently released MTV Star Factory – both games essentially stringing together a bunch of various mini-games with a superficial and largely superfluous hunt for notability.

The main difference here is MTV Star Factory's fresher, sharper art direction, and the fact that, by and large, the games in DJ Mansion aren't anywhere near as good.

They all essentially revolve around the kind of knee-jerk Quick Time Event mini-games you see in many a brain training game. Taking to the decks is a question of hitting a series of directions on the D-pad, for instance, while putting together lyrics is a case of rearranging a succession of symbols in lines of three.

All glitz, no glamour

The better you perform at the games on offer, the more money you earn to spend on your pad, the idea being to get it looking as glitzy as you can before MTV comes knocking.

Sadly, doing so is a fairly plain experience, with decisions about your décor made in a menu screen that resembles a floor plan. There's no way to see just what your place looks like, and even MTV's verdict – which naturally affects your fame level - is delivered via a couple of lines of fairly plain text.

It leaves MTV Cribs: DJ Mansion feeling vague and vacuous, its content being as light and meaningless as the brain of your average MTV Cribs star. Now there's synergy for you.

MTV Cribs: DJ Mansion

A bunch of games strung together for little reason, MTV Cribs: DJ Mansion neither captures the spirit of the show, nor excels in terms of gameplay
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.