PAW Patrol World test

I never thought I’d be happier to test a kid’s game than a AAA title. I’ve been planning for a long time to somehow introduce my five-year-old daughter to the world of video games, but I wanted it differently than in my case around 1994 when I was six years old (tearing out each other’s hearts in Mortal Kombat 2…). I also had to take into account that there is also a three and a half year old younger kid who will obviously want to try everything in the same way, and I can’t lock him in the pantry while the older one plays (although his sister would appreciate it). So PAW Patrol World came at just the right time, especially since they’ve been hooked on it for a while, and if dad allows the TV, they definitely want to watch the adventures of Ryder and the dogs.

Perhaps the most important thing to start with is that there is no Hungarian dubbing in the game. Since our little family lives in the county of Wiltshire, this was not a problem at home (by the way, the English dubbing voices of the game are fortunately provided by the same people who did the original English dubbing of the series), but it can take away from the experience. Fortunately, the gameplay is still completely followable, although the story will have to be translated for parents.

The game itself takes place in the open world of Adventure Bay, where Mayor Humdinger wants to cross the residents of the bay again, this time by organizing a counter party to Mayor Goodway’s festival in Ködösvölgy. That wouldn’t be a problem, but at the same time, he wants to ruin the Adventure Bay party. With the help of the dogs and Ryder, we must prevent this through all kinds of missions, while we will have the opportunity to explore the world around us.

This will be motivated by the abundance of side missions and things to discover, not to mention the bones scattered on the track, which can be collected to add small accessories to the dogs and their vehicles. The latter played an important role in the execution of the tasks – fortunately, we can switch between the dogs and their vehicles at any time with the press of a button.

Of course, we have to solve each task with a different character, but between two tasks we play with whoever we want. The only minor disappointment was that Skye can’t fly, we can only use her helicopter as a car, but luckily you can venture out to sea with Zuma’s hovercraft.

The missions themselves are simple and easy to follow, and the many small (mission-independent) tasks are fun enough to keep kids engaged. You can collect the dogs’ medallions, find postcards that you can then decorate (e.g. put sunglasses on any character from chickens to cats, which is of course an endless source of humor), or visit the playground and slide down the slide or swing.

I didn’t like a couple of things: although the camera in the vehicles remains permanently fixed behind the vehicle, on foot you have to control the dog and the camera yourself, which takes some practice. Sometimes the kids got stuck in the landmarks, but fortunately the control is smooth anyway. There were minor bugs that were easy to fix, such as exclamation marks for side quests disappearing from the map after completing the mission, but sometimes randomly returning. The only major annoyance was the amount of talking, which would be fine, but you have to press a button every single time to continue the dialogue – it would be nice to make this automatic. We tried the game with two controllers, it went perfectly well, but since the game is divided vertically, a large TV would not hurt.

I think PAW Patrol World can be a great gateway drug for children who are just getting to know the world of video games. The only thing that I find a little high is the price tag of 40 euros – but it is a fact that it can keep the children engaged for a long time.

The test copy was provided by the domestic distributor of the game, Cenega Hungary.