Bluey by way of Legend of Zelda, and it’s as Good as it Sounds
You know what, stuff it, I’m going to mention it in the opening paragraph. The most heinous thing about Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen – which, we should clarify, is an otherwise brilliant kids’ game that Bluey fans should pick up immediately – is the way it treats Bandit, Bluey’s dad. Bandit is a legend among dads: someone every father either aspires to or should aspire to. But, in Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen, Bandit is an utter douchebag. He doesn’t want to play with Bluey and Bingo. He undermines their game at every opportunity, and he’s entirely selfish. Which is utter blasphemy and I will not stand for it.
Okay, I’ve got that off my chest. You might get the sense that Bandit is a role model and important to me and you would be entirely correct.
Now for the Real Game Criticism
ASIDE from that, Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is everything I hoped it would be. It’s a gentle introduction to RPG mechanics and Legend of Zelda-style gaming. It’s a love-letter to make-believe play, and – Bandit aside – an authentic story in the Bluey universe. It’s a sandbox that is as deep as you want to make it, and there’s enough here for both kids and their parents to come away beaming.
What it is not is co-op or multiplayer, which – as we’re making a habit in this review of front-loading the negatives – is something that you should be aware of from the start. Even though both Bluey and Bingo feature as main characters, you can’t actually play both of them together. It’s such a whopper of an oversight, and I’m not entirely sure why it’s the case. The world of Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen could absolutely absorb some split-screen play (even single-screen, with a couple of adaptations), but the devs have clearly decided against it. We can only assume that budget and resources got in the way.
But those really are the only two negatives – Bandit and a lack of co-op – because the rest of Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is superior to Bluey: The Videogame in every conceivable way. It’s plain lovely.
Bluey’s First RPG (in Real Life)
Some cutscenes featuring the real voice actors kick things off. It’s colouring time, and Bandit has taken the gold pen. As everyone knows, the gold pen is the pinnacle of stationery, and Chilly, Bingo and Bluey are having none of the theft. But Bandit draws himself as Goldie Horns (ha!), a viking version of himself, and takes the pen to an imaginary castle far away. Bluey, plus the flying Bingoose (Bingo just wanted the gold pen so she could draw herself laying Gold eggs) must travel through a scribbled fantasy realm to get it back.
It’s the excuse for a sketchbook version of the Bluey universe and a very thin fantasy RPG cloth draped over everything. As Bluey, you are dropped into a zoomed out, Legend of Zelda-like world with a fog-of-war around you. It’s entirely up to you in which direction you head, and there are invariably some quest-givers on the way. These are all Bluey characters in roleplay, asking you to find their beads, friends, bugs, quizzes or other fetch quests.
Magic Claw has no Children. His Days are Free and Easy
Your ultimate goal in each level is to get enough ‘goose food’ from these quests (read: a level-specific fruit), so that Bingo can lay a Gold egg for a guardian who is protecting the exit. Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen makes a bold choice here, and asks you to find less than half of the available ‘goose food’ to complete the level, but you can stay and get all of it if you want. Basically, there are loads of optional extras if you fancy it. Which means there’s a nice low bar if a younger player just wants to steam through levels and head towards Goldie Horns.
There isn’t any combat, which makes sense. The quests either involve finding stuff (every level has bugs and beads to gather) or navigating obstacle courses. The obstacle courses are brilliant. Each level has a new toy to tinker with, and these obstacle courses encourage you to try that toy out to its full extent. A level might give you a bicycle, and every facet of the bike has its own course. One will have ramps, another will be a slalom, and yet another will be collectibles popping in and out of existence at speed. Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is really good at wringing every last bit of gameplay from its tools.
In other hands, Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen would have handed these bicycles, wings, grappling hooks and others out slowly. Here, they’re divvied out non-stop. That could make the game overly complicated or hard for a young player to grapple with, but most of the abilities are simple to use, failure is barely punished at all (you can just return to the start of the obstacle course to re-trigger it) and you can of course skip the course if you want. Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen also does some fantastic things with the toys in the last levels, and even evokes Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons at one point.
I Don’t Want a Valuable Life Lesson, I Just Want an Ice Cream
If there’s a minor gripe it’s that some genres of quest are repeated across all levels, and it would have been nice to mix things up. Did we have to be finding bugs every time? Couldn’t there be some curveballs in the collecting? It’s a little filler.
But what surprised us most was how large the sandbox was. There are plenty of levels here, each with their own quirks. One level had us travelling from island to island on a boat, like a low-fi Windwaker. Another had us teleporting across platforms in space. And the levels aren’t small. To cover every last inch of a level, you’ll probably need 45 minutes to an hour. Helpful maps and fast-travel locations mean that navigating them isn’t onerous.
We didn’t have much hope for Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen. After Bluey: The Video Game, which was fine but thin, we expected more of the same. But this is a polar opposite. It might not feel like you’re playing an episode of Bluey like in The Video Game, but here you’re given a wealth of stuff to do, an immersive world to get lost in, and a constant barrage of ideas and toys to play with.
We’ll put down our placard that says “Justice for Bandit” for the moment, because all is forgiven. Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is an absolute treat for Bluey fans, and the toughest decision will be who gets to play: the kids or the adults.
Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen Is The Family Adventure Bluey Fans Have Been Waiting For – https://www.thexboxhub.com/blueys-quest-for-the-gold-pen-is-the-family-adventure-bluey-fans-have-been-waiting-for/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/blueys-quest-for-the-gold-pen/9n64hqpmbzzz
