Bluey: The Videogame Review (Xbox Series X)

I’m not taking advice from a cartoon dog

Ah Bluey, the kids cartoon that boomed with even adults. Not many modern kids shows are able to do that with the way a lot of them are written. I even like Bluey and will watch it whenever I happen to catch it on. The first episode I watched was Pavlova. My dog even likes Bluey. So, when I heard Bluey was getting a video game and it’s going to be framed like an episode, I was looking forward to it. Lame I know. My plan to play it was trashed, though, when I saw the price tag, the length of the game, and the poor reception it got. I was pretty content with never playing the game until it was added to Game Pass. I thought “Why not?” and started it up.

Bluey: The Videogames is told in a way that’s similar to the show, though it divides its chapters into episodes. These episodes, rather than being standalone, are all tied together. Having it be like a four episode long special that strangely have all the episodes titled differently. Anyway, the game opens to Bluey and Bingo waking up their parents. Bandit, their dad, isn’t a morning person like Chili, their mom, but the girls are excited about their holiday. So much so they made a sticker book. With their holiday already planned out, they’re ready to start their day with a game. Chili subtly guides them to clean up their toys before she blows up a balloon for a game of Keepy Uppy. This ends up uncovering a torn picture belonging to Bandit and something is drawn on the back. It’s a treasure map him and his brothers made when they were kids! Bluey and Bingo obviously wants to go on a treasure hunt, but they’ll have to get the other pieces from their uncles. I wonder what Bandit and his brothers buried as kids and why.

The game’s story does reference multiple episodes in the show. I kind of wanted this to have it’s own story, but I do like how the show episodes references are used here. It reminds you of the episode it came from and it puts a twist on it, making it kind of like a sequel episode.

As you play through the game, you’ll be able to play as any of the Heeler family members and you’ll be able to switch between them at any time. I actually switched for each episode, partly since there’s an achievement and it was kind of funny playing as one of the parents. No matter who you play as, the game does play the same. The game does control well aside from it being easy to grab an item beside the one you actually wanted to pick up. The game is also really handholding and pretty simple in how you’ll progress. It’s more or less you doing a task or two, playing a game, and it’s off to the next episode (with cutscenes sprinkled in, of course). There is also a kick button and you can get one of the parents to give you a piggyback ride if you’re playing as one of the kids, but these don’t get used during the story.

Also, I have to give credit when credit’s due, the lesson the game’s ending has is a pretty good one.

After each episode, you do get to unlock a minigame which is the game you played within the episode. There’s Keepy Uppy, Magic Xylophone, Ground is Lava, and Chattermax Chase. There are only certain locations you can play these at, since you do need enough room to play them, and it looks like each location does have slight differences in the layout. These are obviously meant to be played with others, but you’ll play against AI if you’re alone. There are achievements associated with each minigame to encourage you to play them. This is obviously also meant to be the replayability aspect of the game, but they aren’t that interesting and I wouldn’t be surprised if kids ended up finding these boring after a short while.

There are collectibles in the form of stickers. The sticker book not only is a way for you to progress to the next episode and travel between locations, but a way to see your collectible progress. There are technically two different sticker types: regular stickers and collectible stickers. Regular stickers are just you collecting regular looking items that are sparkling and picking them up will turn them into stickers. Like plushies or a soccer ball. There are also plant stickers that does require you to take an extra step to watering them to the max growth state. You won’t see where these are located or if you got all of them in a location, but there is a basket where you can take out plushies or the sports balls if you want.

In contrast, you can see how many collectible stickers you have left to find in each location and it’s just the same four sticker designs. There are four sticker designs, varying in size, that will sparkle and you’ll have to collect three of each per location. All the stickers only appear once you finish the episode the location is featured in, but even then, the game does gate you off during the story so you don’t wander off too far. There were only a few that I didn’t find by myself. I didn’t mind finding all the stickers, but it was a bit annoying that the sticker book opens every single time you find a sticker and having to wait about 14 seconds to get back to the game.

Each sticker you collect and each mini-game you do will grant you stars and these stars unlock dress-up items once you get three. Sadly, these are mainly just hats with one back item being butterfly wings. These items are pretty…weird considering they’re 3d objects being put on 2d characters. A lot of them look really out of place and some don’t have the same coloring as it does on the artwork shown on the menu for these dress-up items. Plus, the color a lot of hats have don’t pair well with the blue and orange fur the Heelers have. Sadly, the items you put on don’t show during cutscenes and the game kept taking it off.

I haven’t seen all Bluey episodes, but I’m so sad we didn’t get the grannie costume as a dress-up outfit.

The performance of Bluey: The Videogame is pretty good. I didn’t run into any stuttering or framedrops. I didn’t run into many bugs, but I did get one during episode three when I jumped down to the bottom floor from the top floor. I wanted to get down faster and it caused the cutscene to trigger without me being there, strangely teleporting me back to the top floor and bringing the camera away from where the cutscene was supposed to be at, and once it ended I was trapped upstairs by a baby gate. This required me to restart so be careful during episode three.

Bluey: The Videogame shares the same art style the show does and does a good job in mimicking the style with most of the 3d assets (or the ones that are more obviously 3d assets). It does a good enough job mimicking the animation, but it’s just off enough for you to notice something’s off. I only noticed a few instances where I noticed something was strangely low resolution. The music is also the same from the show. The voice actors do also reprise their roles here, which is great (differing voice actors is a pet peeve of mine, especially when it’s one of my favorite characters), however there is a problem here. The recordings are not up to the same quality as the show’s. There are so many lines in the game that was so obviously spliced with two different takes and if it wasn’t spliced lines it was lines that really needed another take. For example, there were some words that I couldn’t understand; like it took me a long while to realize Chili was saying “Wow! You got a sticker, sport”. It’s so bad that I even wondered if they just reused words or lines from the show.

Verdict

Like many others, I had high hopes for Bluey: The Videogame. Bluey is actually a good kids cartoon and it expanding to having a video game had potential. Especially if the game’s quality was on the same level as the show. However, Outright Games being the publisher should have been our warning that it was going to be a quick cash grab. That’s not to say it doesn’t have positives as it was pretty cool we got to walk around the Heeler’s house, that they were able to get the original voice actors to reprise their role, they did mimic the show’s art style pretty well (even in the 3d models), and it does end on a pretty good lesson. It’s just that the negatives heavily outweigh them. The writing isn’t at the same quality as the show, it’s very short considering the price (even when you go for 100% achievements), there are still some bugs present, and it falls into the uncanny zone with the animation being similar to how it’s animated for the show but slightly janky and the majority of voice lines clearly being spliced or needing another take. True, I’m an adult playing and reviewing a kids game, but that doesn’t mean kids don’t deserve better games nor does it mean it can’t be criticized.

This game is definitely not worth $40 and I honestly feel ripped off even though I was able to play it through Game Pass. If you’re able to play this on Game Pass or rent it, sure why not.