Konami seems dedicated to making the most of Nintendo's new commitment to wireless connectivity and personalized touches in gaming. The social component of gaming at least is front and center in a few recent titles, none more than Diary Girl. In Diary Girl, we have the proposed update to that revered institution of girlhood, the small book tucked beneath pillow or in bedside drawer containing all secrets unknown to boys and men. It's barely a game at all, this Diary Girl. Holding the DS on its side like a book is the first tip-off that we're not in traditional territory. The first thing you'll do is create the embodiment of the girl that you are. It's easy later to go in and customize the girl, something that fans of Diary Girl will find endlessly amusing. It's like a more interesting Mii, really. Custom looks are well done in the game, with a trend toward the larger-than-life, anime style. The main thing is to have a fantastic looking girl that accompanies your every move through Diary Girl.

The visual design of Diary Girl takes a minute to adjust to, but becomes clear quickly. Tabbed browsing is the name of the game, with content flowing down from tabbed menus on all four sides of the screen. Selecting options changes the surrounding options, and no matter how far you drill down, it's relatively easy to use the Back button to return to home. It's a bit disappointing that these nifty visuals weren't accompanied by more effort in the sound and music. This side of Diary Girl is bland as bland can be. Girls may like the diary component and the other diversions contained here, but no self-respecting girl will be entertained for long without some fun music. What's here is bland and uninspiring, and there are some equally tepid sound and voice effects. After a sparkly glint in the visual design, Diary Girl falls flat.

The traditional games are included here as mini-games accessible through one menu. If you like casual gaming, you'll find a few interesting matching and puzzle titles, including a quiz game that portrays itself as a personality test. The fun isn't here, especially when it comes to multiplayer. What you will like is the ability to unlock special outfits and accessories through the games contained in Diary Girl. It feels a bit like a plea for someone to play these very mediocre games, rather than connect unlockables with exploring other parts of the game, or building on trading and designing. The stock of special items is relatively low, and unlikely to be refreshed without the benefit of an in-game editor or tool. The calendar in the diary portion goes through 2020, but you'll have unlocked all of your girl's outfits long before then...

The diary portion is the goldmine of Diary Girl if you believe there's gold in them 'thar hills. I put more stock in the growth of personal blogs, or profiles attached to third-party sites like Facebook. Not that these necessarily take the place of a private diary, but the notion of a private diary isn't as fresh as the notion of sharing your story with the world in the hope that someone connects with you. I'm not a big bloghead, but I suppose there is something cathartic in spilling your guts to the world, especially when they comment and push your approval rating through the roof with their many views. Girls that love their DS and don't wish to be so... public with their lives can lean on Diary Girl. Entering content in the journal view is easy, if you consider tapping out messages with the stylus easy. The lazier girls can rely on a simple emoticon and a weather icon. It's the, "How do I feel and what is the weather doing" method of keeping a diary... More verbose girls can peck out messages to their hearts' content. There's even a handy horoscope that tells you how you're feeling and how you're going to feel for the rest of the day.

Apart from dressing up your girl and wearing your heart on your DS in diary form, Diary Girl allows you to chat with friends wirelessly across the room or across the country. As long as you have an established friend code you can launch into a one-card session, or a multi-card session. The only real difference is the flexibility to host or have someone else host. In the single-card session, you'll host automatically. Text chat is fun and there's an audio component that allows you to press (X) and speak into the DS microphone to be heard by your friend. It's just like having a cell phone, but without those pesky minutes clicking by on your Dad and Mom's bill... At the end of your session, you can quit with the comfort of knowing that the password you established will prevent snooping eyes from accessing your every private thought. Don't put anything too private in there, though, because the password can be easily reset by someone really intent on reading your stuff. Better to buy a safe and put your DS inside it, eh?

The mini-games are the only element of Diary Girl approaching an actual challenge. Otherwise, you'll be goofing around and enjoying yourself, jotting down notes, chatting with friends, and dressing up your girl. The mini-games become increasingly more challenging during each level, with lofty goals that you'll have to reach if you're ever going to unlock all the clothes and accessories your girl needs. There are opportunities to interact with other characters, but in a very structured way. Diary Girl doesn't need to strike up any deep relationships in the game or develop complicated mechanics. Players with some experience using the stylus won't mind data entry in this fashion, but those of us used to typing will find it unbearably slow.

Diary Girl works on a certain level, as an experiment in how girls at a grade-school stage may come to view gaming and games as essential to life. Boys are clearly there early into their lives, but for some reason girls resist. Running away to jot down a diary entry isn't necessary any longer, for girls that have an interest and a dedication and a DS. A concern I have is that the electronic format, especially in a DS cartridge, may not be the best for posterity. Had Anne Frank used a DS, would we have preserved her notes into modern times? Probably not, so at least for the sake of ego, this is a losing proposition for dedicated journalers. It feels more like an advertisement for young kids that are on their way to being aggressive contributors on Internet boards, listservs, and user groups. The girl-themed game is a good one, which if not well made, at least contains enough substance to impart some wisdom onto its target audience. If not, at least we tried... Keeping a journal is good discipline and there's a sufficient amount of fun contained here to capture the interest of some girls, especially those with plenty of previous exposure to the DS. Not sure that any girl is going to run out and dump their paper journal in favor of Diary Girl, but it stands out as a neat experiment that may just find its audience.