It’s pretty interesting how, over the years, games for kids have evolved quite a bit. Long gone are the days where there was seemingly no way to have anything kid-focused in a title without some educational element taking things over entirely. What’s great is that not only can modern titles be kid-friendly, age-appropriate, and play out at a pace that should help minimize frustration, but they can have educational elements included in them without being the focus.

In the case of Rascal’s Escape, the adventure as a whole plays out similarly to how they’d occur in kids shows. You’ll simply walk around town, talking to other people and sometimes trying to help them with some problem, which will usually just require some simple actions to complete. Whether that’s finding worms to help get a garden going, or something similarly basic, the emphasis is pretty well always on being friendly and helpful, encouraging positivity. I also appreciated that as you collect things the game will also typically count each one, also displaying the number, serving at least a small educational purpose without it being the emphasis. Throw in the fact that a parent can join in cooperatively and even earlier gamers can likely get the help they need if they’re getting stuck.

Of course, with it being so kid-friendly and having an emphasis on overall design that’s geared towards being their speed, this probably wouldn’t appeal to anyone further along that it's pretty young target demographic. What works as being deliberately slow for early gamers, would likely be a bit painful for others. I’d also say that in some cases where tasks require some degree of platforming, the game’s design doesn’t work terribly well. You can get through them, and thankfully there aren’t strict times that you’ll need to beat, but they do represent a potential for unintended challenges. Regardless, given the general lack of titles made for early gamers on the system, this is a pleasant option to have.