What do you get when you mix Harry Potter with the Bratz? Well, you get the Winx Club, the show Winx: Join the Club is based upon. While I don't watch the show myself, this game seems to be tailor-made for fans. Catchy theme music abounds and everything is bright and colorful. I am not sure whether the actual voice actors are used in the game, but if not, they imitate them very well. Sometimes the quips they say during gameplay can get a little repetitive, but it's not too bad.

Each game is introduced by a quick clip of the cartoon setting up the reason for the mini-game and upon completion of the mini-game, there's another clip wrapping things up. So clearly, the game follows the show. While the cartoon clips are enjoyable and help to move the story along well, they can end abruptly, sometimes even while someone is speaking. Although with the horrible load times already, I guess I won't complain too loudly because more cartoons added would probably mean longer load times. Argh! But more on that later...

The songs while varied, upbeat and really cute, can get redundant if you spend any time on a Menu screen or take too long to get through a mini-game, because the loop is kind of short. But I did enjoy the music, which I assume is from the show, and there were a wide variety of songs, so you might hear the same song on two games or so, but it's not annoying.

Winx: Join the Club is a charming game based on the television cartoon show Winx Club and is clearly targeted at 'tween girls. Although I haven't seen the show, I enjoyed the clips in the game and can guess that it's a pretty cool show. So the background story goes a little like this - the Winx Club is composed of Bloom, Flora, Stella, Musa, Tecna and Layla, all smokin' hot teen fairy students at the Alfea School for Fairies. Their sworn enemies are the wicked teen witches Icy, Darcy and Stormy who have recently joined forces with a new enemy, Lord Darkar. Lord Darkar seeks the 4 pieces of the Codex, which if it falls into his hands, will give him enormous power. So it's up to the Winx to protect it at all costs.

The entire game consists of a series of mini-games and in order to progress, you must beat the mini-games, unlock more mini-games and open up the entire storyline. There are 5 areas of the game: Red Fountain, Cloud Tower, Alfea Dorms, Alfea and Shadow Haunt. Within each area (of which initially, only Red Fountain is available) is a hub which has a number of doors. The doors indicate mini-games and also the main map.

When you choose a mini-game, only one of several challenges is open to you and once you complete that challenge, the others open up and become available. These challenges are simply variations of the same game. By completing mini-games, you will also open the several locked mini-game doors. Once you do the mini-games in that hub, you'll open up different areas and be able to further the story. Fortunately, you don't have to beat each and every challenge within a mini-game, just the initial one.

Mini-games vary in type and can be anything from a rhythm game where you match a fairy's moves a la Simon, guiding an aircraft around obstacles in a top-down view, controlling a fairy outrunning a tempermental witch and her destructive storm, a Zuma clone, a puzzle with shifting pieces, a Tetris clone, various racing games, memory games, mazes, shooters and so on. By completing mini-games and collecting coins, flowers, etc. within the games, you'll unlock Winx songs, videos and new outfits. Most games are fun, but the racing games can be a little tedious, mostly due to control issues, which I will discuss in Game Mechanics. They are all pretty short, so they work perfectly if you just have a few minutes in the car or at recess. Best of all, if you have to quickly quit playing, you can simply power down the PSP and when you boot back up, your game is right there waiting for you.

Besides all of the mini-games you can play to progress the story, there are also Bonus games found in the different levels under Winx Options. It's here that you can also switch your Winx character and this is important because playing with the different characters unlocks videos, songs, clothes and furniture for that Winx member. And you know you want to decorate your Winx member's room, right?

You'll begin in Red Fountain, the boys' school, then progress to Cloud Tower, the witches' school. Then it's on to Alfea, the girls' school and the Alfea Dorms, where you can check out the various Winx Club members' dorm rooms and decorate them how you please. Once you play through the games at Alfea, you move on to Shadow Haunt, Lord Darkar's abode. Fans of the show are sure to love having the ability to explore the dorm rooms and to see the various areas of their favorite show recreated and incorporated into this game.

Most mini-games are pretty easy, although some mini-games suffer from poor control, so it makes them frustrating and more difficult than they should be, especially any of the racing games. When you move the craft or person from side to side, instead of a smooth movement, they can seem to hop sideways. This can cause you to hit obstacles. Also, at times, when you hit obstacles, you will "reset" in the same spot and other times, it will place you on the opposite side of the screen, causing you to hit even more obstacles.

Overall, however, the mini-games are opened to you at a decent rate of difficulty and each additional challenge that you unlock of that same mini-game ramps things up a bit. Most are quite enjoyable and great for just killing a little time since they don't last too long.

The load times between each mini-game and area are abysmally long. Like so long that you could go make a sandwich. Literally. I fear this may be a big detractor to kids with a short attention span. I know I'd just put my PSP off to the side while things loaded and do something else.

Winx: Join the Club features Auto Save, so you don't have to worry about saving your game ever. Just play and that's it. Most of the games are a lot of fun and are easy to jump into. The racing games, however, have fairly horrible controls and could result in a lot of frustration. One mini-game has you playing the part of Prince Sky as he travels around on his hovering shield, killing baddies and saving his friends. Well, the thing is really hard to control and you may find yourself having to backtrack just to locate the friends since there is no map. Others might have you playing as a Winx Club member or one of their friends trying to outrun an angry witch, either as she flies over you or tramps behind you on a Dragodon. Either way, the control is so shoddy and difficult that you will die. Many times. I'm a grown-up and I can handle this, but several times, I did want to throw my very expensive PSP. I can only imagine how hormone-raging 'tweens might handle these situations. Yikes.

Overall, Winx: Join the Club is a great little game. There are literally scads of mini-games to play, with several variations for each. Plus, replay increases as you do each game with all of the members of the Winx Club to open all of the unlockables, and beating the game yields newly opened mini-games. Fans of the show will enjoy the unlockables for their favorite character and most of the mini-games that get you there are lots of fun too. I'd recommend this game for fans of the show and maybe even those who aren't, because I really enjoyed it although I've never seen the show, nor am I in the target market. It's a great time-killer.