Synth Riders Experience - Barbie Dance ‘n Dream Review

The Experiences in Synth Riders aren't your ordinary ball-bashing points fests, in case you’ve never played through one. They’re custom-designed levels featuring brand new areas that you travel through as you bash those balls — but there are no points, so no need to worry about missing or getting a Perfect. Just relax, enjoy the music, and try not to get distracted by the pink dolphins.

The song featured in Synth Riders Experience - Barbie Dance 'n Dream is FIFTY FIFTY’s Barbie Dreams (feat. Kaliii), and while there is, of course, the normal points-based level that you can play through with the song, the main reason this exists is the Experience portion. You can go through it in normal VR, but you can also go through in mixed reality.

Admittedly, there isn’t much difference between normal and mixed, but if you’ve had some vertigo or disorientation while playing some of the other Experiences, it can help to mitigate that with a familiar room in your peripheral vision. Mixed reality might be solely for the Quest 3, but in any case, this is the first Experience that I’ve played where it was an option.

The Experience begins with a big Barbie-brand box opening in front of you, and you entering the magical pink-hued world. Honestly, with how bright and pink everything is, even if you removed the Barbie logo from things you’d be able to tell where the inspiration came from, it’s like being in a Barbie music video. Clouds, sealife, swimming pools, flip phones, flash cameras… If I had to guess, I’d say it’s all based on really vivid fever dreams that a parent with too much Barbie merchandise in the house had. That’s not to say it’s bad in any way, I’m just trying to describe it — The Offspring Experience is similarly bizarre.

While I’d like to give a decent opinion on Barbie Dreams (feat. Kaliii), I’m unfortunately not really a big music person. I have songs that I like and ones that I don’t, but I don’t have a preferred genre, for instance. The song itself is one that I enjoy and can really get into the groove with, so to speak, when playing through the Experience or the normal level. It’s a good one to get your body moving to!

Synth Riders Experience - Barbie Dance ‘n Dream is a bright and fun time, with plenty to keep you moving. Whether it’s on your regular playlist or not is down to personal preference, but it’s definitely one I’ll keep in rotation.