“Great if you’re a fan of the TV show. For Real Life!”
Another popular kids franchise game by Outright Games can only mean one thing: It’s time to team up with my kids again to review it and see what they think. A common problem I see in other reviews of similar titles is that they get tested by adults and we’re hardly the target audience, so I’m bringing in the experts!
Now, I’m not going to hide this, but I was really excited about this game. I’m a massive Bluey fan! The other shows the kids like to watch, like Peppa Pig, Blaze and the Monster machines, and Paw Patrol are things I can tolerate in the background, but I won’t actually watch entire episodes. Bluey is in a whole different ballpark and has humour aimed at parents too, with subtle winks at how tough parenting can be and how all kids are basically the same.
I was interested in seeing if this double layer of mixed target audiences was also present in the game, so let’s find out!
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by Outright Games, this review is the personal opinion of the writer. Got unanswered questions about this game? Get in touch on X!
| Developer | Artax Games |
| Publisher | Outright Games |
A piggyback ride, anyone?
Things I liked!
- It’s Blue through and through | The team really nailed the way the show feels. From the loveable and catchy music down to the way the stories are told with one of the 4 main characters (Bluey, Bingo, Mom or Dad) voicing the title of the episode in a short cut-away and the subtle humour aimed at parents. The most obvious one in this game is when the uncle gives the kids a new and loud toy and the parents eye each other because they had just gotten rid of the first one. You can watch that episode in action [HERE].
Fé: “I always love it when my dad says ‘this is soooo recognisable’ because Bluey and Bingo act a lot like us.”
- Original voice actors | I can’t talk for the international voices, because we always watch the show in Dutch, but the voice actors in the game are the same ones as on TV and they totally nailed the roles again. Also going to make a statement here and say that the Dutch voice actors absolutely put their all into the characters, also in the TV show. I’ve watched all of them multiple times, and they might have even outdone the original Australian cast.
Fé: “It’s true! It’s the same voices from the TV!”
Lio: “Yes. It’s like playing the show yourself!”
- Minigames are playable with up to 4 players | Throughout the game, you’ll unlock 4 different minigames that you can play against the rest. Keeping a balloon up, the floor is lava, chattermax (who can hold a toy the longest) and xylophone (freezing each other in place). They are fun and I appreciate that they can be played in multiple locations, but the novelty wears off fast and I don’t see myself coming back to these. But the kids love them!
Fé: “I didn’t like playing with dad, he never lets us win!”
Lio: “Yeah, with keepy uppy, he just kept bouncing the balloon all by himself and we never had a chance.”
Collect all the stickers!
Neither good nor bad
- Collecting | You can collect stickers and items for your scrapbook, and as you can guess, there are some achievements tied to this. But it’s annoying how collecting a sticker always results in the same voice line being spoken. Also, a tip for people who have no clue how to get the bottom ones: you have to water the plants! Find a sprinkler, fill it with water, and then go and find the different plants across the 4 playable zones. There was no mention of this in the game, so you can thank me later with your 1000G.
Fé: “It was annoying how dad always wanted to collect everything in the level. Me and Lio just wanted to continue to the next story bit.”
Lio: “Yeah, he always does this with the kids games. We don’t care about acheevuhmints!”
Fé: “He always starts thinking it’ll be fun with us collecting them for him, but then when he sees we’ll miss some collectables, he has to butt in and he takes our controller away!”
- Simple Gameplay | It’s a simple collecting game with just running around, a little bit of light platforming and interacting with objects. Beating the game is very easy, but some collectable items are more tricky. Like having to drag a trampoline across a few screens to reach an item on an umbrella. Even Lio (5) understood early on what he had to do, so it’s great for kids of all ages.
Fé: “It’s funny how Lio being able to play something is a measure of how easy a game is, hahahaha!”
Lio: “Hey! That’s not nice!”
Hot! Hot! Hot lava!
Things I disliked!
- Bugs & camera issues in multiplayer | Sadly, the game isn’t without technical hiccups, especially when playing with multiple people. It’s a shared camera, no split-screen like in Paw Patrol World, which means that it picks someone to be the “leader” and centres the camera around them. The other players will be pulled away like magnets when they stray too far off. This caused some issues like characters getting stuck behind objects and only a soft reboot to the title screen and back seemed to help. It also caused MANY frustrations between my two kids, with them yelling at each other.
Fé: “It’s all because Lio doesn’t listen and do what I tell him to!“
Lio: “I can’t play games as well, and I don’t know what I need to do.”
Fé: “If you keep running off, I can’t do what the game asks us to!”
- Animations | The character animations are mostly OK and true to the show, but there are some things that feel really off. Like when they blow up a balloon and you can clearly tell how the balloon is a separate object just slapped on top of the rest. It looks similar to playing a browser/flash game in 2010.
Lio: “I don’t mind!”
Fé: “Me neither, it looks just like the TV show to me. and it was super fun to run around the house!”
- Very short | I went for the 100% completion on a new save file when the kids went to bed and got the 1000G in less than 2 hours. Keep in mind that younger kids will take longer to understand what’s expected of them, but at the same time they won’t bother to collect every single sticker, so the overall runtime isn’t that much longer for them.
Fé: “I don’t mind. It feels like an episode in the game was about as long as an episode of the show on TV.”
Me: Yes, but I can’t help but feel like there should have been a 5th episode in the game to wrap things up. It seemed like filling the sticker book was leading up to that unlocking, but it wasn’t the case.
If you prefer to watch Bluey The Videogame in action, we’ve got you covered!
How long did I play the review before publishing? 2h15
How long to beat the story? Less than 2 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 1000/1000G
How long to achieve 1000G | ~2 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | PAW Patrol World, Peppa Pig World Adventures,
Conclusion
Two little thumbs up ⭐| Bluey The Videogame faithfully captures the show’s charm, offering a delightful interactive episode experience. While young gamers will relish every moment, the fun ends a little too quickly. Lio & Fé give it two thumbs (or paws) up!
Note: I always feel weird scoring these as an adult. I look at the flaws, longevity and performance, but kids don’t care about all of that. I used to ask them to score, but they either give something a 0 or a 10/10, so I’ve just asked them to put a thumb up, down, or sideways and I quickly got two thumbs up.
Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.
