Bluey: The Game Review
Image source: IGN
If you’ll permit me, I’d like to begin my review of Bluey: The Game by discussing the video game adaptation of a show that is its polar opposite in almost every way, South Park. South Park has two games of note, Stick of Truth, and the still great but not quite as good The Fractured But Whole. Why do I bring them up in a video about a Bluey game? Because the South Park games are everything a video game adaptation of a TV show should be. Around every corner you find references to episodes, moments from the show, characters you laugh at, and a general feeling that you’re playing an episode. Whatever else they may be, they’re wonderfully crafted love letters to the history of the show, and the fans that made it go.
Bluey: The Game is the exact opposite of that.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s clear that the budget for the South Park games and the budget for the Bluey game are night and day. Besides that, South Park had twenty years of rich history to draw on, while Bluey has three seasons of nine minute episodes. There’s not as much to go off of for Bluey. However, the game just feels… soulless.
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It’s hard, because there probably wasn’t money in the budget for more than a few voice lines per character and five locations, but there seemed to be no effort put into it. If you told me that two unpaid interns were given this game to complete in a week, I’d believe you.
Image source: Blueytv
The vague story is that you play as the Heeler family as they spend a holiday weekend. They visit five locations, play minigames, get collectables, and complete puzzles. If it all sounds fun, it’s not, really. I’ll grant that I’m not this show’s target audience. It was made for preschoolers, and I am very much not a preschooler. However, so little effort being put into this game really is the antithesis of what Bluey is. Bluey has always been special because, while it was a show primarily for preschoolers, it had emotional depth, great characters, engaging stories, and great animation. It wasn’t a “eh, this is just for kids, so who cares?” product. The video game very much is. Yes, kids aren’t going to be playing as many video games, and a long, complex story would be lost on them, but this is just lazy.
Image source: GameSpew
But all of that might be vaguely forgivable if it weren’t for the game’s major problem: the price. The game is a whopping $40 USD. If this game was properly priced, say, $5-$10, then you could forgive a lot of the simplicity of the game if it was properly priced. If I’m going to pay that much for a game, it had better take me fifteen hours to complete with a lot of side quests, DLC and collectables. I don’t care if the game is original Battlefront 2 good. If it takes me an hour or two to complete, it’s not worth $40. Sometimes it will go on sale on Steam for a bit less, but this game shouldn’t be sold for more than ten dollars, but it has the Bluey brand behind it, so they priced it that high because they knew parents would pay it.
Overall, this is one to skip. If you’re not a Bluey fan, you’re going to get nothing out of this, and if you are, it’s just going to irritate you how bland and soulless this game is. The absurd price tag and lack of content mean that this game isn’t worth getting. If it was a five dollar android game, it would be more forgivable, but as it stands, it’s more of an eye roll towards the fans instead of a love letter. This game probably didn’t have the budget to be truly great, but it had to have been better than this. It provided a bit of amusement for my 7 year old, but I don’t think he’s picked it up in a while. When the target audience gets bored quickly, you know it’s a miss.
Final score: 3/10
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