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It's not often the interests of children and parents align, but Bluey is a beloved fixture in many households, regardless of age. And the same can now be said for this character's latest video game adventure.
Bluey's Happy Snaps is a photo safari game bringing together the core characters and tropes from the beloved show.
After spending a weekend enjoying the game on Nintendo Switch 2 with my 4.5 year-old twins, I can confirm that this is a perfect level of fun and challenge (with plenty of replayability) for gamers young and 40 (not old đŸ˜‰).
One Paragraph Review: Bluey Happy Snaps
For any household that has a Bluey fan, this is a must-buy. Even if you're the sibling or parent not holding the controller, watching someone else play this game is enjoyable because it features voices and animation style that are accurate to the TV show. It's simple enough that it's easy for young players to navigate with ease, but engaging enough that there's motivation to discover and explore every fantastic pixel of Bluey's world.
Pros
- Available across platforms
- High replayablility
Cons
- 2 Player Co-op slightly limited
- Younger players could benefit from a stronger "hint" mechanism
Bluey's Happy Snaps - The Story Explained
In Bluey's Happy Snaps, everyone's favourite Australian canine siblings, Bingo and Bluey, discover an old Polaroid-style camera among Dad's belongings. With minimal preamble, the characters head out to the park to begin snapping photos of the world around them.
With each level, players are challenged to find specific items (clearly identified in a sticker book) and snap pictures of the world around them, filling these books with a variety of photo stickers.
Bluey's Happy Snaps - The Gameplay Mechanics
It's clear from the very first level that the developers, Gameloft Brisbane, weren't content to let the success of the game rely on Bluey's fame. They were thoughtful of how to keep the game interesting, while still maintaining a friendly level of challenge for their potentially young audience.
Hunting down objects and snapping the pictures is fun and simple. But could get quite repetitive. However, to get certain photos, users have to sometimes interact with the world around them. A great example is in the first level, which requires Bluey to hand-off the camera to Bandit (her father) and kick a soccer ball into the net.
This small detail is one of many (like using a magnifying glass to locate a tiny bug to snap a picture of, or waiting for hotdogs to cook on the BBQ before they're ready to photograph) that pop up in the game to keep it interesting and to encourage kids to explore and revisit areas.
As your sticker book fills, you unlock new levels. And within levels, there are fun Easter eggs and items to interact with (and plenty of characters to chat with).
Bluey's Happy Snaps - What we liked most
The game, as you'd hope, was very thoughtful and respectful for their potential audience and their skills. For example, you don't have to be super precise with your camera framing to have a photo "count" toward your overall objective.
Some other great aspects of Bluey's Happy Snaps include:
- Replay Factor: Even after my boys found all of the items to photograph in the levels, they loved going back to find fun items like coloured pencils to draw with, or simply explore Bluey's home and backyard for things they might have missed.
- Mini Games: I Spy is a time-trial version of the standard game (where you're "on rails" moving through a level and trying to capture the maximum number of pictures of recurring birds) and there's a demoltion-derby style mini game where the boys hop in their Granny cars and tear around the backyard. These can be played over and over and over again. Note "Here Come The Grannies" is an add-on included with the Deluxe Versions of the Game.
- Actually Fun: Usually when my 4.5 year-olds want to play video games together, it's mostly them being frustrated at not knowing what to do or how to do it to progress through the game. This was simple and intuitive for them to enjoy and the few times I took the controller to help track down a hard-to-find item to snap a picture of, I genuinely enjoyed the hunt (and a few times was actually challenged to locate things....who has Dinosaur Footprints as wall art?!?)
Bluey's Happy Snaps - What we didn't like
Unless you're really unfamiliar with Bluey, I feel like most buyers will have a pretty good idea of what they're about to buy. But no game is perfect, and here are a few things you may want to consider:
- Taking Turns: Having two kids who both want to game at the same time can be challenging. With this game, players can control both Bluey and Bingo, but the second player experience is slightly limited (Player 1 gets to use the camera and activate items, while Player 2 just walks along and can strike a funny pose in the photo). It's an understandable limitation, but just make sure you know before you buy if you're thinking it's a "two player" game for your kids (it's not couch co-op).
- Extra Photos: There are certain points in the game (like after the granny car races in the backyard) where you're encouraged to save your "extra" photos (pictures that are irrelevant to the main mission). This mechanic was a little tiresome, as navigating this menu was just slightly awkward and bypassing it takes more button taps than it probably should.
- Deluxe Content: One of my main points in this review has been the replay factor, and one of the things that my boys liked the most was replaying the "Here Come The Grannies" mini-game, which is one of the features that is only included in the deluxe edition. Missing out on the extra dress-up items and activity cards included in the deluxe edition are no big deal, but the Granny mini-game is a pretty core experience in our testing, meaning the recommendation is to spend more to get the complete version of the game.
The Bottom Line Is Bluey's Happy Snaps Worth It?
This is absolutely an easy game to recommend to any household that loves Bluey. Since it's available on so many platforms (Xbox, Switch, Switch 2, and PlayStation 5, and Windows) there are few barriers that would prevent Bluey fans from getting their paws on this game.
And the replay factor is huge. Even the delight my twins got out of taking "funny photos" of birds and other things that weren't part of their quest to fill their stickerbooks showed me that there's plenty of room for imagination and creativity within this game.
Bluey Happy Snaps
Bluey Happy Snaps is a delightful and easy-to-enjoy adventure that can bring the family together on the couch for some wholesome fun. This is one of the few times I would push for someone to consider the Deluxe edition (the "Here Come The Grannies" bonus content is so good, it's become an essential part of the game experience in our household).
There's no shortage of great games to add to the backlog. And Bluey's Happy Snaps carves out a nice space in the gaming landscape of today for a fun pick-up-and-play experience for families to enjoy together.
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