Every time somebody suggests to me that the low quality bar of the vast majority of licensed video games aimed at children is fine because they’re just kids and they don’t know any better, I die a little inside. Kids deserve good video games! Making kid-friendly art doesn’t have to mean making something middling or half-baked. That’s why Bluey’s Happy Snaps, from Gameloft Brisbane, makes me so happy. Here’s a game designed to be enjoyed by very young children that doesn’t skimp on depth, on presentation, on polish, and aims to entertain and enrich the kids that play it, rather than simply placate them.
What this game is about mostly, as if the title wasn’t a dead giveaway, is taking photos! Bluey and Bingo have become the heirs of an old polaroid camera, and Mum decides to support this with a series of scrapbooks for the pair to fill as the family goes about their regular outings – trips to the park, to the beach, an indoor playground and, of course, a stop over to Hammerbarn for snags and tools. Each stage challenges kids to find specific objects, animals, sights and scenes to photograph to fill up the relevant scrapbook, with subsequent stages unlocked after satisfying at least a portion of the required photos. The stages aren’t huge, but photo targets range from obvious to sometimes downright tricky, so there’s plenty packed into each and lots of reason to run around and explore.
Games for younger players tend to work best when someone older can jump in and help, so the incredibly seamless nature of Bluey’s Happy Snap’s drop-in cooperative play is wonderful. At any point, players can hit a button and switch between Bluey or Bingo, and with just as much ease a second player can take control of the other. If you’ve got kids struggling with a specific section or who are just too young to handle the photography gameplay, it’s great to have the option to drive progression forward while they’re able to enjoy just running around in the world of the show. The game is genuinely interesting and fun enough, even as an adult, that taking the lead on its four-to-five-hour campaign is some of the most fun you’ll have babysitting.
This is all helped along by a, frankly, fantastic visual presentation that does the seemingly impossible and captures the look and feel of the very two-dimensional animated series and translates it into a 3D space running on the Unreal Engine. I can’t overstate how gorgeous some of these environments are, and how cohesively all it comes together with the animated characters and respect to the art direction of the show. Although you explore with fixed camera angles, whipping the polaroid camera out at any point allows you to freely look around in first-person, which is consistently impressive and very occasionally necessary to spot extra-hidden goodies.
The same goes for the voice acting and music, which pull from the show and from new recordings of the original cast. There’s an unmatched level of authenticity that really drives home the love, care and attention that’s been put into producing this game. And just like Bluey on the telly, Happy Snaps is also a lovely tribute to Brisbane, packed with a lot of recognisable landmarks, flora and fauna. It’s heartening to be able to explore and exist in something so familiar and close to home, and have it paid proper tribute to in the way that Gameloft Brisbane clearly have.
Outside of the core challenges, Bluey’s Happy Snaps also offers some neat diversions. Travelling between areas initiates an “I Spy” mode where Mum requests photos of every example of a native animal that they pass in the car. These are short, on-rails jaunts that remind me a lot of a similar mini-game in the very not-for-kids Yakuza games, albeit somehow slightly harder to 100% in my experience. There are also the For Real Life activities, which happen in the regular levels but also give kids the guidance and encouragement to recreate them in the real world – a really neat way to encourage screen-free play without unnecessarily demonising the video game side of it all.
Reviewed on PS5 | Review copy supplied by publisher
Great
- Looks and sounds just like the show, but in a 3D world
- Photography challenges are fun and varied in difficulty
- Drop-in couch co-op is incredibly seamless
- For Real Life activities are a great way to encourage screen-free play
Not great
- Free camera control can reveal some very empty pockets of the environment
Born into the world of video games through SEGA, and in particular Sonic the Hedgehog, Kieron’s gaming tastes now consist of the latest, shiny AAA thing, an indie darling or two, and an embarrassing number of hours of Balatro.