Grab a sharpie and scribble a picture on your belly, because it’s Care Bear time! The cuddly bears with magical midriffs are making their Xbox debut with Care Bears: To The Rescue.
If you’re a child of the ‘80s, it’s worth noting that Care Bears: To The Rescue isn’t a nostalgic take on the original series or movie. It’s instead based on the animated TV series Unlock the Magic, which – Google tells us – is greenlit to be made into a movie at Warner Bros. And if you are a child of the ‘80s then that fact comes with a punch in the gut: the movie is due to come out 40 years after the first, original Care Bears episode aired. 40 years. It’s enough to turn us into Grumpy Bear.
A Bear Bargain
We’re going to kick off by talking about price. Care Bears: To The Rescue is a very affordable £12.49, which makes it – checking The Entertainer here – 49p more than an actual toy Care Bear. That represents incredible value for a Care Bear fan. Because what you get for the outlay isn’t short (we’ve played limper kid titles that cost us north of £40) and isn’t poor quality, either. Developers Polygoat, who haven’t tackled an established IP before, let alone a kids’ one, have done a notable job of making something that the whole family will want to play together.
Yep, Care Bears: To The Rescue can be played in four-player couch co-op. There’s no ability to play online, but that’s probably to be expected. But for those families with enough Xbox pads, one, two, three or four bears can be chosen to play simultaneously in a bout of 2D platforming. Players of New Super Mario Bros or Rayman Legends will have an idea of what this feels like: bears play together on the same game screen, jostling for position as the camera tries to keep up with all of them. And if one player dies or falls off screen, they float back to the group on a cloud, waiting for someone to ‘pop’ them so they can rejoin.
If this is how you plan to play Care Bears: To The Rescue then you’re in for a treat, and a couple of minor headaches too. While we invoked it, New Super Mario Bros this is not: the action is neither frantic nor particularly difficult (with some minor exceptions in the final Blusterland levels), so it doesn’t come with the same degree of panic or frustration. The bears can’t block or step on each other, so you’re not constantly pushing for space. And failure isn’t particularly punishing. We would have taken slightly more checkpoints in some of the latter levels, but otherwise what’s here is forgiving.
The exception is, as you might have anticipated, the camera. Keeping four players on screen is a task that Polygoat have largely neglected to tackle. The camera doesn’t really zoom out to encircle everyone, which means that players get left behind. This is a problem in levels like Winter Wonderland, where you have slidey momentum across the platforms and are expected to move at velocity. Care Bears: To The Rescue is also inconsistent about who it keeps alive. You would expect the bear at the front to be the priority, so that – if a bear falls off the screen at the back – then the camera would reset to the bear at the front. But nuh-uh: often the camera chooses the bear at the back, sticking a fluffy finger up to the leader.
But as long as Mum and Dad don’t travel too far ahead, a family co-op session of Care Bears: To The Rescue is a delight.
Swiss-Army Bear
The Care Bears’ one attack – the belly beam – stacks with the belly beams of other players, so you can combine to take down foes. A care bear can belly-beam a plant that clears its roots for other players to pass. It’s gently cooperative, and very appropriate for players of five years or older. And, of course, you don’t have to play cooperatively at all. Care Bears: To The Rescue is the same game in single-player, just without someone to pop your cloud if you miss a jump.
The platforming stays at roughly the difficulty of the first level in a Mario or Sonic game. You only have two buttons to learn: a jump and the belly-beam. That belly-beam is multi-purpose. It can take down enemies by concentrating fire on them until they eventually obliterate. That attack is slightly awkward if we’re being honest, as you have to be roughly level with the enemy for it to be targeted, but enemies move out of range. We’re not entirely sure why Polygoat didn’t decide to stun the enemies when they’re hit, or reduce the enemy’s health a tad.
The belly-beam is also a key. It can unlock brambly plants that block the way, or it can wake up Care Bears so they help you out, building rainbow bridges or powering elevators. But while the belly-beam is versatile, it’s the only button – alongside the jump – that you need to worry about. When other platformers can get complicated for early-schoolers, this one stays resolutely simple.
That’s not to say that Care Bears: To The Rescue is one-note enough to be a bore for older players. Three sticker collectibles are tucked in the corners of each level, and reaching them is at least a little taxing for either the fingers or mind. Helpfully, one of the bears has a sticker-hunting power that points an arrow at upcoming stickers (the other bears have powers that are bearly worth bothering with).
And…it’s a shmup?
Each of the game’s five worlds has one shoot ’em up level, which blindsided us a little. You hop into a Care Bear aeroplane (we assume that’s consistent with Unlock the Magic lore) and dodge lumps of rock before firing at a giant Little Shop of Horrors-style plant. It’s basic as you like, and we’d have paid extra to have an auto-fire button, but it’s a welcome distraction from the platforming.
And once THAT level is done, there’s a unique minigame. We’re surprised that Care Bears: To The Rescue didn’t do more with these, letting kids play them repeatedly with slightly remixed challenges. You can expect to catch falling magma in bowls, twist PipeMania pipes, and participate in the obligatory rhythm-action section (which, confusingly, doesn’t match the music that is being played). They represent a wild difference in quality, but – again, for £12.49 – it shows a development team who are determined to add stuffing to fill the bear, rather than strip it out.
By the end of Care Bears: To The Rescue, we’d drawn a smiley face on our belly. This could have been a quick cash-in, an off-brand Care Bear from down the market. But this is the real deal: it’s got a sizable number of levels, and enough room for four-players to play together.
Care Bear fans can feel confident in cuddling up to Care Bears: To The Rescue for a few hours, which isn’t bad for 49p more than an actual Care Bear.
Important Links
Spread the Caring in Care Bears: To The Rescue! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/spread-the-caring-in-care-bears-to-the-rescue/
Save the Silver Lining with Care Bears: To The Rescue – https://www.thexboxhub.com/save-the-silver-lining-with-care-bears-to-the-rescue/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/care-bears-to-the-rescue/9p8mbwqq429c
