A strange little side quest
Princesses of the 4 Seasons may feel immediate, but the ideas around fashion and style have been evolving for a very long time. Barbie Fashion Designer became a major software hit in 1996, selling more than 500,000 copies in two months and proving there was a large audience for fashion-focused computer play. A second detail makes the picture even better: Pac-Man went on sale in 1980, and its creator Toru Iwatani famously linked the character's shape to a pizza with a slice missing. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.