My Friend Peppa Pig
PlayStation 4
Before playing:
The fruitless quest to get my 5 year old into video gaming continues. Did he care about this game whatsoever? No. He didn't really care about Bluey, either. Try as I might, I just can't seem to get him to show any interest in video games. He paid attention to this game for about five minutes, and then he got bored and started doing other things. This left me having to play through essentially the entire game by myself. Oh joy.
This is not a game I would have chosen to play through if I didn't have a child. Peppa Pig isn't really my thing. But since I had started playing it, I had no choice but to finish it. You know, for review purposes. And the easy platinum. At least there is an easy platinum.
But is the game any good?
*sigh*
Story:
I'll admit, I've never seen Peppa Pig before. My wife has watched it with my son, but I've never been in the room when this show is on. I don't think my kid likes it as much as Bluey (which is what this reminds me of). That's probably why he didn't care much to watch me play this.
You don't control Peppa, you control a brand new character that you help create using a character creation screen. My character kind of looked like Mister Peanut. The basic plot is that your character has moved into town and has made friends with Peppa Pig. You follow Peppa around town and interact with the characters, completing tasks that are specific to the areas of the game.
This is very much a story driven game. It's all about visiting areas and interacting with characters that I can only presume are familiar to anyone who watches the show. You visit the grandparents on the farm, you fly a hot air balloon, there is camping with your classmates, you go to the museum, etc. There is no real plot, here. It basically is just a "day in the life" kind of story, like you'd see on an episode.
At the end of the game, your character has to go back home, and everyone is sad.
Gameplay:
I feel like I'm not going to have much to say, here. The game is extremely basic. It is barely even a game. I played Bluey a few weeks ago, and I thought it was very simplistic and child-oriented. This is even worse. It is clear that this is a video game for beginners. There are not even any minigames or anything. It is just walking around and talking to people and interacting your way through the game's scenarios by hitting the x button.
The most interactive thing you can do is pick something up. Like, there is a part where a teddy bear gets lost and you have to pick it up and bring it back to the little one. And there's another area where you pick up trash on the ground and put it in a garbage can. There is literally nothing more complex you do in this game. That's it.
You can't fail at anything, there are no stakes, no timed segments, nothing. There is no challenge whatsoever. Like I said, this is a game for beginners. All you do is walk and talk and unlock cutscenes that advance the story. Occasionally you may pick something up and give it to someone. To make it even more boring, if you leave an area and come back, you often have to sit through the same cutscene over again, as there is no option to skip them.
I will say that the game does a bang up job of making it feel like you are in an episode of the cartoon. I won't deny it that. But as a game it fails miserably. If there is any challenge, it is in remembering which areas you haven't been to yet. There was one point where I thought I'd explored everything (which would unlock the ending) but there was one area I had missed. Once I went to that area, it was smooth sailing from there.
Graphics/Sound:
I don't usually do this, but I am lumping sound and graphics together because they go hand in hand for this game. Basically: this is an episode of the show. The presentation is great. It all looks and sounds marvelous - like an episode of the show come to life. I'd even say it is completely indistinguishable from the show.
The look and feel of the game is clearly the best thing about it. What else can I say aside from that?
Overall:
Unless you have a kid that is six years old or younger, stay away from this game. This is for small children. This is not something that an average gamer picks up for fun. Unless you are a rabid Peppa Pig fan, you are not going to get anything out of this. It's terrible. As I said earlier in my review, it is barely even a game at all.
As an "interactive Peppa Pig experience" I can cut it some slack. I am sure I would have loved to play something like this when I was a kid. And I'm sure there are a ton of parents out there that were able to play this with their kid and have a great time. Sounds lovely. I wish my kid wanted to play this.
As a video game, I can't give it a good grade. It's just not a good game. I do appreciate the look and feel of the game, and I appreciate how cool it probably is for little kids. It's like an interactive episode of the show. But as a video game experience, it is bad. I didn't have any fun playing this. I'm not going to give it a failing grade, though, simply because I do realize I am not the target audience for this..
But yeah. If you are a serious gamer like me, there is no reason for you to play this.
THE GRADE:
D-
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