If you have no idea who Bluey is then I can't help wondering why you're reading this, but here we go: Bluey: The Videogame is based on the popular Australian kids cartoon series featuring an animated dog, her family and friends. The game is a brand-new story set across 4 interactive adventures which allows you to explore well-known locations from the TV series, such as the Heeler House, the Playground and the Beach. You can also play a few of Bluey's favourite games with 2-4 of your family and friends in shared and/or split screen multiplayer.
The voice actors Bluey, her sister Bingo, Mum, Dad, Mort, and Uncles Stripe & Rad are the real ones from the TV series and everything looks and sounds as jolly and happy as it should, the game's animation is just like the TV series and the overall look of the game is totally faithful to the source material.
The game is divided into Episodes, complete an episode and you unlock a mini game (like Keepy-Uppy, The Ground is Lava, Chattermax chase or Magic Xylophone) which you can play at any time. The controls are suitably simple; 'A' is jump, 'X' is action (pick up/operate/put down), and 'B' is throw or kick. The ability to swap characters in-level is a nice touch too.
Here's the first issue I'd have with the game; even just playing gently along with a young child (I imagine it's aimed at 3-6 year-olds) it's over too quickly, with little in the way of challenge. This was more worrying when our 4 year-old and their friend played the 4 Episodes through for a second time and finished it in 2 sessions, totalling 90 minutes tops. Admittedly getting all the collectibles and in-game tasks will more than double that, but this lack of lifespan was so disappointing because the price (£34.99/£27.99 with Game Pass) would suggest almost full-price game quality/longevity. While disabling the HUD (which is 'on' by default) adds some difficulty (as you don't get guided everywhere with an on-screen pointer) and actually have to search for things and remember where places are), with only 4 chapters (Holiday, Rescue, Chattermax and Treasure) it's still a bit short.
I must say the game seems pretty solid, I only suffered one little glitch when a watering can I was carrying disappeared every time I went towards the front of the Heeler house, but quitting to the main menu sorted this out with no progress lost The problem is that once the rather short main game is complete only some fun achievements and some tricky-to-find collectibles add any real challenge and are likely to keep the kiddies coming back for more. Bluey: the Videogame is extremely cute but rather expensive for a game that might only be played once... To paraphrase Bluey herself, "Dad, maybe don't tell Mum how much it cost..."
Many thanks to Artax Games and Indigo Pearl for the review code.