BC Advanced Strategies: Pretty Pretty Princess

What? Really? There is strategy for the infamous little girl dress-up game? Well, not really advanced strategy, but there are a couple of things you can do to increase your odds of winning.


Pretty Pretty Princess is a very simple game. You go around the board, using the spinner to move one to four spaces. Depending what spot you land on you get a specific piece of jewelry that you MUST wear. To win, you must get your color's bracelet, necklace, ring, two earrings and the crown. You also cannot win if you are in possession of the black ring.

The main allure of the game is that little girls get to play a simple game while dressing up with shiny plastic jewelry. However, some older kids play this game, including myself, because hey, sometimes you feel like dressing up in drag, you know? Well anyway, here's some strategy for Pretty Pretty Princess:

1. If you land on a "take any piece" tile, always take an earring if you don't have one. Earrings are the only piece that you need two of in order to win. Therefore, they are the most annoying to get. If you already have one you don't necessarily need to take the second one but if you have none, always try to fill up your earring requirement as fast as possible.

2. Try to get the crown last. The crown is the most volatile piece in the game since there is only one crown in the game. Whenever an opposing player lands on a "take any piece" space or a "crown" space, you can lose your crown. There is no other spot on the board where an opposing player can take away one of your pieces.

3. Keep the crown off the leader. If your opponent is one piece of jewelry away and they have the crown, take the crown away from them when you land on a "take any piece" space. This will probably buy you an extra turn or two to get the piece that you need to win.

4. On the "remove any piece" space, always remove the black ring or the crown. Obviously, you cannot win with the black ring, so if you do have it, get rid of it upon landing on the "remove any piece" spot. Sure, someone else could take the black ring from you by landing on a black ring spot, but taking it off on the "remove any piece" spot ensures that you don't lose any jewelry you've accumulated. If you don't have the black ring but you do have the crown, then remove the crown since that can also be taken away from you.

5. Don't have the black ring or the crown and you land on a "remove any piece" space? Look ahead on the board then. There's a 25% chance that you are going to move either 1, 2, 3, or 4 spaces. If you have to remove a piece then look four spaces ahead and see what you might land on. If you see a bracelet 4 spots away, you should take off the bracelet as you will have a minimum of two chances to land on that space. On your next turn, if you spin and hit a four you'll get the bracelet. If not, then you'll still be behind it and have a second shot to land on it. This means that over two turns, you have more than a 25% chance to land on the bracelet spot.


Lolz. I love that picture. Jeff looks so satisfied and Mike is so dejected. Ah, PLAY is awesome. Yeah, I know, I'm looking WAY too much into a very simple game. However, even the simplest games have strategy to them! Now you know how to dress up even faster in Pretty Pretty Princess.