Of all the children’s programming I’ve sat through in my decade-plus of parenting, Bluey is the best bar none; I’d even say it’s the best kids’ show since Sesame Street. And in this market, with popularity comes lucrative licensing deals, from toys and clothing to apps and video games—which is where Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen comes into play.
Despite being an almost-overnight sensation, Bluey has seemed to be cautious or discerning in how it handles licensed products. Thus, to date, young fans have only really had the creative app Bluey: Let’s Play, a host of browser games on the official website, and Outright Games’ Bluey: The Videogame to let them play in the Heelers’ whimsical world. Luckily, Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen was worth the wait.
Back in 2023, I lamented that Bluey: The Videogame felt rushed, like “a promising thesis of a game,” and suspected it had been rushed out to market for the holiday shopping season. (To their credit, the game has since enjoyed a couple of free updates, which have addressed that qualm somewhat.) The core would satisfy young fans, but the franchise and its signature imaginative tone deserved something more involved, yet still approachable enough to be a kid’s first game.
“Much like the episode that inspired it, Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen makes the most of these four distinct art styles and enriches not only the story, but the gameplay itself.”
Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen lives up to that promise. Like Outright Games’ adaptation, the game is framed like a storyline from a proper episode of the show: the family is spending a rainy afternoon drawing and acting out a fairy tale-like story, when Dad/Bandit hogs the golden marker (even though “we know what happens when you hog“). Thus, Bluey and Bingo’s in-story personas set out on a quest through several wacky worlds to reclaim the magical tool.
Proper voice acting and writing from series creator Joe Brumm once again make these animated framing scenes the highlight of the experience, offering something that the whole family can enjoy despite this being a purely single-player game. But this time, the adventure between the animated cutscenes is more robust and enjoyable in its own right.
Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen is a traditional adventure game, where Bluey can freely explore levels in search of goose food, which she feeds to “Bingoose” (aka Bingo, fully committed to her imaginary character as always) in order to lay an egg and appease the level’s guardian. These guardians and all other NPCs are drawn and acted out by Chilli and Bandit, and the script oozes with the same charming personality as the episode, as the characters impart simple quests and rewards.
Each stage also has a plethora of beads to collect, and some form of critter to round up. Players are only required to gather a certain number of goose food items per level in order to continue, but should they wish to keep exploring, there are a lot of collectibles for young fans to seek, often hidden behind simple challenges. Sometimes these are timed platforming tests, where Bluey must pick up stars before they disappear, and others are a touch more intellectual, requiring players to notice things in the world around them.
Gameplay-wise, Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen is a well-honed adventure for the cartoon’s main target audience. Bluey has enough skills or tools at her disposal—mainly a magic wand for grabbing items and the ability to dig in certain spots, and in some levels, a glider or a jetpack—to offer a stimulating yet attainable challenge for first-time adventurers. It has more purpose than Bluey: The Videogame, while still allowing kids to go at their own pace, and it offers a more fulfilling sense of accomplishment.
The highlight of it all is the series’ signature filters on reality, borrowing heavily from the season 3 episode “Dragon,” where each family member’s distinct drawing style impacts the story. Chilli, as the most talented artist, illustrates the game’s scenery and most characters, while each child draws their own character, and Bandit’s rough stick figure-like creations form obstacles and rowdier NPCs.
“Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen is an excellent way to get kids used to using controllers on consoles, thanks to its lower stakes and intuitive design.”
Much like the episode that inspired it, Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen makes the most of these four distinct art styles and enriches not only the story but the gameplay itself. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling the twists in the last couple of levels, but they use these animation themes brilliantly, in a way that really validates the entire experience.
And this experience has a chance to thrive even more now that it’s arriving on Nintendo Switch and other platforms, after a brief period of exclusivity on mobile. Kids today may be more acclimatized to playing games on tablets or phones, but Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen is an excellent way to get kids used to using controllers on consoles, thanks to its lower stakes and intuitive design.
The Switch version performed perfectly well, especially for a kid’s game, and there should be no noticeable difference from playing on the family iPad. Fast travel across levels is instantaneous, and, as one should expect from a game of this low graphical load, there were no technical issues to speak of. If anything, playing as a diligent, seasoned gamer made the experience a little jarring, as I’d often find the minimum food requirements to progress before finding the actual NPC that barred the way, which almost felt like a glitch at times.
In fact, the Switch (or Switch 2) feels like the ideal platform for Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen‘s sort of adventure. Families can enjoy the in-game “episode” in docked mode at home, while young players can putter around in the levels in search of all the collectibles to their heart’s content, thanks to the handheld mode. This sort of adventure is perfect for road trips.
It was a pleasure to see Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen finally fulfill the series’ potential for video game adaptation. Sure, it helps that this may be the closest thing we get to a new proper episode in this long wait between season 3’s dramatic blockbuster of a finale and the feature film coming next summer. But it was also vindicating to see the Heelers get an interactive adventure befitting their huge imaginations, instead of a bare minimum tie-in or the sort of paywalled app that’s holding back kids’ games nowadays.
