REVIEW – Paw Patrol On a Roll Game (PS4)

Introducing Paw Patrol on a Roll – The Paw Patrol have recently entered the world of gaming, and have launched a brand new game release available just in time for Christmas on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Erin has always been a big Paw Patrol fan, and will happily sit and watch Ryder and his team of pups setting off on their adventures around Adventure Bay whenever it comes on TV. She is also just getting to the age where she is discovering computer games, although these are normally on the iPad or phone. When we were asked to put the Paw Patrol On a Roll game to the test and Erin learnt that this would involve playing on Daddy’s PS4 she was pretty damn excited!

I have some very fond memories from my own childhood when I first got introduced to games with my favourite characters (in my case Alex Kid and Sonic!), so I was keen to see how Erin would respond!

About the Paw Patrol on Roll Game

The Paw Patrol on a Roll Game features all of the beloved Paw Patrol characters, ready to save the day on one of 16 exciting rescue missions, but needing your child’s help in order to succeed! (No job is no big no pup is too small!)

Children will help Marshall, Chase, Skye, Rubble, Everest, Tracker and the whole team of pups use their unique skills to help rescue friends and keep the community safe.

There are 8 different locations from Adventure Bay to explore including Farmer Yumi’s Farm, Jake’s Mountain, a Desert Canyon, and Under the Waves.

Our Experience 

The gameplay of the Paw Patrol on a Roll is very easy to follow, so perfectly tailored to the target age group which is 4-6 years of age. During each level, the pups are sent on daring rescue missions, tasked to collect hidden pup treats (bone biscuits) and gold paws, and play mini games that require you to make the most of each pups’ individual special skill!

The level starts with Ryder on his pup pad on screen telling you about the mission, explaining what is happening and what you will need to do in order to complete your mission. Each mission is split into two parts and requires two pups in order to complete. This nicely separates the game and varies the characters to keep interest levels high. Ryder pops on screen occasionally to give you hints and tips, or remind you how to do something if the player appears to be stuck.

Erin had never played on the Playstation before, so for her, it was the first time she had even used a controller. I was fully expecting it to take ages for her to get the rang of this, moving her pup backwards and forwards using the left hand toggle button and jumping over obstacles using the X button (on PS4), however she got the hang of it VERY quickly, only struggling sometimes with double jumps (for extra height). She also has a tendency to hilariously do what I used to do when playing as a child, and feel the need to actually flick the controller up and round when jumping (having the potential to poke someone’s eye out if you sit too close!!) 

The graphics on the game are very good (please note my photos are of the TV screen and as such not as clear as they are in reality!). The graphics are extremely similar to the TV show, with bright colours and attractive back drops. When on the mission, Erin had to jump over lots of obstacles and buildings collecting her bones and doubling back to collect the ones she might have missed. There are 200 pup treats on each mission (100 in each half) and 5 gold paws to collect overall, and although it’s not essential to collect them all, Erin was pretty determined on this, so we did see a couple of sad faces when she finished a level with 199!! Whilst the Gold Paws are extremely large and obvious to find, not all of the bones are entirely obvious (particularly if there are two choices of route), and in one case we saw the bone we had missed but weren’t able to double back and get it as had moved onto the second half. I had to admire how stubborn Erin was about this, and for her, it did add an extra element of challenge to the game play, with her determined to reap the rewards of collecting every single one.

When you c>ome across a obstruction or challenge that you cant do on your own, you can call for help from one of the other pups, all of whom have their own special powers which may prove useful. Ryder will ask you which you want to use, giving you three different options to chose from. One of which would be the ‘right’ choice, but if the player picks the wrong one it doesn’t really matter, it simply asks you to try again until you select the right option.

Erin has really enjoyed the game, particularly when she has to complete little mini challenges like repairing a bridge (assigning the pieces into the right order) or using super powers like Skye’s Jet Pack to fly through the sky.

From an adult’s perspective, I do think there is a very narrow age bracket for this game, from 3-6 years, as any older than 6 they would probably find the game a little on the easy side and progress through the levels without much difficulty at all. As such, the price tag would be quite a lot to pay for something they could bore of quite quickly. That said, even me and Mike were tempted to have a little go, so if you have multiple children I think it’s a game that can be enjoyed in groups too, each taking a turn. The split in the middle of the level is an ideal point to swap players if you have siblings who want to complete missions together.

On the negative side, Ryder popping on the screen regularly can become a little bit annoying (more for the adults I think than the child playing) and disappointingly there is no talking from the pups themselves, nor does it feature the officially licensed theme tune. Because of this, I think Paw Patrol on a Roll is therefore somewhat lacking on the familiarity that Paw Patrol fans might be used to – it would have been nice to have heard their exclamations of “rubble on the double” and “chase is on the case” etc as they set off on their missions.

Whilst I appreciate the game is aimed at very young children, there is also no element of danger or risk at all at any stage of the mission – there are no baddies, no build up of real tension, and no chance for the children to lose a life or have to redo any section again. I think it would’ve been fun to have little elements like Mayor Humdinger throwing apples to avoid (or something equally harmless but fun), to add a little more soul to a game play that is otherwise fairly basic.

At 5 years of age, Erin however has absolutely loved it, she is enjoying progressing through the levels, and loves that she gets to experience all the different characters from the show. Overall therefore, whilst I do think there are things that could have made Paw Patrol on a Roll better, it’s fair to say it has still been a big hit in this house, and I am confident this would make a great Christmas gift for children in the right age group.

The Paw Patrol on a Roll game is available to purchase from Smyths Toys and currently has £10 off the RRP making it just £19.99.

If you fancy getting hold of a copy of Paw Patrol on a Roll in time for Christmas, head over to the UK Mums TV twitter feed on Friday 30th November from 1-3pm where you can learn more about the game and use the hashtag #PawPatrolOnARoll for your chance to win some spot prizes! See you there!

*This is a collaborative post. We were sent the Paw Patrol on a Roll game free of charge for the purpose of this review and compensated for our time. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own*.