Lots of cartoon trends come and go, but Bluey’s rise to the top of the streaming landscape has been fueled by more substance than the typical preschool kids cartoon. The phenomenon has been almost as strong among adults as kids, as the show’s strong writing, imaginative play, lovable characters, and surprisingly deep emotional intelligence has moved many adults to watch it as well. It was inevitable that the popularity of Bluey would invite video game adaptations. And while Quest for the Gold Pen is simple and familiar, it’s also well-made in a way that could serve as a gentle early introduction for a new generation of gamers.
It’s hard to talk about Quest for the Gold Pen without inviting comparisons to the other Bluey video game release, Bluey: The Video Game. That game from Artax and Outright Games captured the look of the cartoon remarkably well, but it was a bit dull. You mostly took part in minigames around the Heeler household, loosely built around the story of finding a treasure map. It was cute, but it lacked the heart and imagination of the cartoon, and its gameplay hooks weren’t all that compelling.
Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen, from Jetpack Joyride developer Halfbrick Studios, is almost the precise opposite: a more imaginative setting, with solid game mechanics underpinning it, but also more structured. You aren’t just playing around the household and making your own fun this time, and a lot of the activities are very similar. But since it’s presented in a familiar framework, this feels like a proper and recognizable video game–just paced a little slower to make it approachable for youngsters.
Quest for the Gold Pen takes place on a rainy day in the Heeler house, as the kids sit around their kitchen table drawing pictures to pass the time. Since this is a real game, with a quest, it needs an antagonist, and this time that happens to be the dad, Bandit Heeler. Bandit takes the envied golden pen for himself and refuses to share it, setting up the conflict that drives the story forward. Watchers of the show will recognize this version of Bandit as mischievous and lightly bullying, but in the spirit of giving his kids someone to play against. It’s all in good fun, and the interstitial animated segments between each stage hint that Bandit is actually trying to push the kids toward creative problem-solving instead of just being a jerk.
And so the quest itself takes place within the family’s drawings, which is really a standout feature of the visual presentation. Rather than recreate the standard look of the show, this (ahem) borrows a page from one particularly beloved episode, Dragon. That episode established that the kids draw like you’d expect for young children, Bandit’s drawings are even more rudimentary since he gave up drawing after being teased as a kid, and Chili’s drawings are clean and pretty because she was encouraged to stick with it into adulthood. So in the context of Quest for the Gold Pen, the evil king Bandit is drawn by Bandit himself, so it looks pretty crappy, while all the stages are being drawn by Chili, so they look neat and clean. It’s a sweet way to bring in an established facet of the show without being too beholden to it.
Within those stages, you’re essentially playing a light Zelda-like adventure game, though again, it’s simplified for younger kids. You roam around an overhead map solving simple environmental puzzles or finding hidden garden gnomes or types of fruit. You play as Bluey but your companion Bingo is actually Bingoose, a flying version of the little sister who lays silver eggs after gathering enough food. So in each stage you complete a handful of objectives to get rewarded with goose food, she lays an egg that opens the way from one of Bandit’s golden minions, and you move on to the next environment.
It’s very simple and likely to feel somewhat repetitive for adults. There isn’t any danger or death–falling off a blind cliff just restarts you nearby, and there aren’t really any hostile enemies. Each stage plays more-or-less the same as you explore around and find puzzles to solve, and each one takes no more than a few seconds to finish by itself. Most of your time is actually spent wandering around to find the puzzles, and Bluey’s slow movement means that takes just slightly longer than I would’ve liked. There are some convenience features, though, like unlockable fast-travel points, and once you’ve gotten enough goose food to lay an egg, Chili appears and offers to transport you straight back to the doorway where you can move on.
Quest for the Gold Pen does introduce occasional new mechanics, like a bike to get around faster, or a jetpack to fly across gaps. These are pre-set for each stage, so you won’t necessarily have them for the next one, but that also means they’re a little more tailored for the needs of each stage. The bike is much more handy in the wide-open and dry rocky desert than it would be in a stage with more vertical sections like the cliffs, where you have a jetpack to shoot yourself up to tall heights. Near the end, the game does start stacking a few powers together, but it always feels natural.
Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen isn’t likely to sustain an adult’s interest like the hit animated show has. The movement is just a little too slow, and the puzzles are just a little too simplistic. But that’s also what makes it a great introduction for younger players who need a gentle onboarding experience. And for them, they get to have that introduction wrapped in a lovely art style and funny, heartwarming story that captures the spirit of their favorite cartoon dogs.
