When it comes to family-friendly video games, the industry has had a spotty history at best overall. Whether there has traditionally been too much of a focus on trying to make the games educational, a failure to figure out a way to balance accessibility with entertainment value, or an over-reliance on licensed characters to compensate for weak play, there’s no wonder that many times kids would just end up playing the same titles their parents or siblings were. 

The good news is that while in the last generation there weren’t all that many titles focused more on the specifically kid-friendly end of the spectrum, in particular the indie space stepped up to help fill the void. Whether that was with a few licensed titles like the surprisingly fun Hello Kitty Island Adventure, or the very endearing Yono and the Celestial Elephants, and others, there are some good options out there. While the fact that this is an adventure featuring Bluey should immediately draw some attention, the fact is that licensed characters don’t always equate to great gameplay, even while typically demanding a higher price. The great news though, is that in this case the license absolutely isn’t wasted, and this package comes together in a very satisfying manner as a whole.

What I love first and foremost is that the game’s somewhat silly story involves parents spending time and being creative with their kids. The mythical Gold Pen is in Dad’s possession, and in order to get it, Bluey and Bingoose are going to have to journey through a variety of strange lands created by their Mother. Rather than simply dumbing down the experience across the board, the action and puzzles start relatively simply, and continue to get progressively more varied and challenging as the quest progresses. Even if certain things may still prove to be too tough for kids to complete, in each stage there are far more key items to be found than are needed, so progress should pretty well always be possible. Each stage is quite large, full of things to experiment with, discover, and uncover, and for the most part any puzzles you run into tend to be quite intuitive, helping to minimize frustrations. Moreso than most other titles in the space, this really does feel like it was made from top to bottom with kids in mind, but not in a pandering or insulting way. It instead feels like it was designed to help be instructive to newer gamers, helping them learn how to explore and play in a space that’s friendly and accessible. While it may be a bit pricey, it feels like a terrific use of a popular license, and I’m hoping they’re able to make some more adventures in this vein in the future.