PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay Game REVIEW
AD – This post is in collaboration with Outright Games
Welcome to our PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Party…. a household only party of course!!! Now that we are officially back in lockdown, it’s all too easy to feel a bit grumpy – we’ve been trying to focus on the things we can still do at home, and part of that revolves around playing games together, whether it be board games or video games. This week we had a mini family party to celebrate the release of the BRAND New PAW Patrol Might Pups Save Adventure Bay Game by Outright Games.
Released on the 6th November 2020, the PAW Patrol Mighty Pups game is available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, or Xbox One and is suitable for the whole family.
The game follows the PAW Patrol Mighty Pups and their super hero mission to save Adventure Bay; using each of the pups’ individual mighty powers to help make the town PAWsome again!
With 7 main mission challenges rescuing and supporting familiar PAW Patrol characters, as well as exciting mini games and a NEW cooperative play mode (so that siblings and friends can play together) we were super excited to put the game through its paces!
Whilst checking our the game with the girls, we also took the opportunity to bake some PUP themed treats to munch on whilst we played, and printed off some colouring sheets that embraced the Mighty Pups super powers!
Our Experience of the PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay Game
The girls are HUGE PAW Patrol fans, and having previously reviewed the PAW Patrol On a Roll game that was released on the PS4 last year, the girls were really excited to see what the brand new Mighty Pups game had in store.
PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay has three main areas of play – Main Missions, Mini Games and Collectibles.
Mighty Pups Main Missions
The Main Missions of the PAW Patrol Mighty Pups game feature lots of familiar PAW Patrol characters including Jake and Chickaletta and as you might expect with the PAW Patrol pups, normally involve someone who has got themselves into a bit of a pickle and needs rescuing by Ryder and his pups.
Initially a few of the 7 available missions are open and ready to play, with some being locked, needing to be earned before they can be released for play. At the start of each mission Ryder briefs the pups at the lookout (verbally chatting and with written credits) setting the scene for the mission and the challenge that lies ahead.
Some of the initial missions include:
- The Meteor – A meteor lands on the beach in Adventure Bay and the pups must work together to find where it landed and take it to the lookout. Rocky’s claw can be used to collect and recycle the garbage on the beach whilst Rubble’s strengeth can clear the path so that the meteor can be moved.
- Jake’s Resort – Jake was getting his ski resort ready for visitors when a storm hit, the ski lift is broken and the pieces are all over the place. The pups need to find all the pieces and help him fix it! Rubble’s jackhammer can break the rocks that fell in the storm, whilst Rocky’s tools can help fix it!
- Find Chickaletta – Mayor Goodway has advised that Chickaletta is missing! The Pups need to help find her and get her home for a bath! Chase’s incredible sense of smell can help track her down, whilst Marshall’s water canons can wet down the flowers to make sure their scent doesn’t distract him from her scent!
- Jake’s Mountain – In this mission, Jake is hurt on a mountain and needs help to get home before the snow storm comes. Help Spy Chase use a zip line to cross the snowy mountain to reach Jake and then Everest’s hook to climb the steep walls of the snowy mountain.
During the main missions, you get to play as (nearly) all of the different PAW Patrol characters (although if your kids are like mine are Skye and Everest mad, its worth noting that you cant pick who you play for each level, there are 2 designated pups already allocated to each mission based on their super power skill.) Interestingly, Skye only makes an appearance in one of the later levels – so its almost as if they know she is one of the faves, making you really want to work to release that mission!
As you select your mission, the shields highlight underneath so you can clearly see which two pups are being called up to play.
Playing together on PAW Patrol Mighty Pups
A few feature for the PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay game is the element of cooperative play. You can play with two players on the same device and take on a character each, as the mission involves swapping between characters regularly throughout the level, using their special powers to clear obstacles and navigate through the landscape.
Erin and Neve were therefore able to buddy up to complete their mission, swapping regularly to take on the navigation and use their chosen pups super skills. This worked really well and prevented any bickering or whinges of ‘let me have a gooooo’ which normally results from Switch gameplay, although there was some initial debate over who took on the role of each pup!
During game play. Ryder pops up regularly on the Pup Pad at the bottom of the screen to give hints, tips and reminders on which buttons to press (visually highlighting on illustrations ton show what buttons do what). This is really handy for younger players like Neve who at aged 4, can sometimes forget which buttons do which. It also alerted the girls to when they needed to swap characters and take it in turns.
The landscapes in PAW Patrol Mighty Pups are detailed and you can see around in all directions from above, which is quite a big change from the more simple one dimensional platform style that I remember from PAW Patrol On A Roll.
The scenery is familiar from the TV Series and whilst there is plenty of space to navigate, there is a helpful little light ray that guides you in the right direction so that the girls didn’t spent hours wondering around aimlessly without achieving anything! I really liked this as we have other games where it isn’t obvious what to do next!
The Mini Games
Of all the Mini Games (7 in total), the one that children will probably be most excited about (and the one that my girls haven’t stopped singing ever since) is Pup Pup Boogy – a song that you will recognise if you are a regular viewer of the show! In this mini game, two pups (the one you play can be chosen from ALL of them – yippee) can battle it out to win the ultimate dance zone contest, pressing buttons and moving the cursor at the right time to do all the correct dance moves. The girls loved this, and it was great to see some familiar music and context from the shows they know and love.
Other mini games include:
- Mr Porter’s Feast – (with 3 levels you need to unlock) where you must collect all the fruits that have got missing from Mr Porter’s van.
- Everest’s Snowy Adventure – helping Everest clear the snow from the road whilst avoiding obstacles
- Jump Rope – jumping a skip rope and earning more points for the more complicated jumps you do in a row (the girls found this one the hardest)
- Dive in with Zuma – a challenge to find the 3 items that captain turbot has hidden under the sea whilst avoiding the fish and other obstacles
At the time of writing, the girls still have two mini games to unlock, but these are great when you want a quick game of around 5 minutes, without heading to the main missions.
Collectables
In the final element of the game there is a collectibles section – as you play the main missions and mini games you can earn badges (finding them hidden around landscapes and when you earn certain amounts of pup treats and points). Each badge can then be added to your list of collectibles including characters, locations and animals and are a great way for children to mark their achievements.
There are 37 characters to collect, 9 Adventure Bay locations and 5 different animals, and you can click through to each badge to learn more about it.
What we loved about PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Game
The girls have really loved playing the PAW Patrol Mighty Pups game, and I will admit it, I have enjoyed it too – It would be rude not to give it a go when writing this review – a tough job but someone has to do it right?
The main missions are fun and engaging and there are lots of problem solving elements in the game play, which is a great way to help children figure out what they need to do and take the steps to achieve it.
There are no baddies or threats in PAW Patrol Mighty Pups whatsoever, so you don’t have to worry about any violence, scary bits or unexpected bad guys – this is purposely aimed at younger players and for my two aged 7 and 4, this worked really well.
The game has recognisable scenes from adventure bay and the mini games keep it fun and fresh throughout.
As a parent, I loved the ability for siblings to play / work together when completing the missions , as the missions are completed in pairs and you have to swap between characters regularly throughout each mission. With one device and children that normally bicker when we get a new game, it was nice to see them discussing their challenge together and Erin helping Neve figure out what she needed to do next.
What would be change?
My review wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t critique the game, and there are a few minor elements I would change or that I feel are worth knowing before you play.
Firstly, its worth noting that the Pups themselves dont speak – the only dialogue is through Ryder who pops up on screen for instructions / advice / guidance – this didnt seem to bother the girls, but it might have been nice to have that additional familiarity too.
It can take a while to load each new level with the pups running across the bottom of the screen, and whilst the kids did get a little impatient waiting at times, my view is that unless you’ve lived with the loading times of the Commodore 64 I had in my youth, then you really can’t complain).
* HANDY TIP*
Finally, this wasn’t immediately obvious when we started playing, but you can skip through some of the introductions (as once you’ve seen them you probably wont want to hear them again. To do this you simply press the B button and hold it down until the circle fully fills up, this then skips straight to the start of the game.
Overall, PAW Patrol Mighty Pups is fun , safe and family friendly and is a great gift for Christmas that the whole family can enjoy playing together. PAW Patrol Mighty Pups is available at Amazon from 6th November 2020 and on the Switch retails at £29.99.
Don’t just take my word for it, why not come and join the PAW Patrol Mighty Pups fun at the Twitter Party over at @ukmumstv on 6th November from 1-3 to learn even more about the game and what to expect!
*We were provided with a complementary game for the purpose of this review however as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own*
