Due to having 2 kids under the age of 3 at the moment, I'm seeing kids content that I previously wouldn't have otherwise laid eyes on...
When I was a kid, there were tonnes of cash-ins on my favourite films and shows - Turtles, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Batman, Spiderman, Transformers -- I'm not saying they were always good, but I have fond memories of quite a few. Things are a little different today: kids have a multitude of media options, videogames being among them, so the competition for a franchise is stronger than ever - but I still think kids are possibly being a bit under-served by games that get released.
Aside from the occasional game like My Friend Peppa Pig, those that are turned in to games don't seem to have the imagination or ambition that I think some of those things deserve. They might get a low-budget iPhone and Android game or something like that. Or they get a console game that really doesn't do justice to the show.
Thought it might be interesting to discuss anyway. I can think of more than a few but I'll start with these:
Fireman Sam
Fireman Sam is a bit old now, but the latest season released in Nov 2022. There have been a few videogame releases like this:
..and they're quite mini-gamey. Think puzzles and touch-screen match-games, things like that.
Surely kids would love to control Sam or Elvis, or drive the firetruck "Jupiter" or the team's other vehicles.. these days, Sam and Team have a drone, boats, helicopters and more. Instead of cheap touch games, we could see some comedy from Norman or mount some actual rescue missions? Ponty Pandy is pretty well explored in the 3D series now - they have the town, the quayside, they've shown us inside the home of more-or-less every resident, there are farms, train routes in to the mountains, Tom and his mountain rescue helicopter - they deal with things like fires started by electricity, forest fires, river rescue, animal rescue -- some of the characters have an interest in aliens, archeology etc. The games just don't have any of that.
True and the Rainbow Kingdom
From Wikipedia:
"True and the Rainbow Kingdom follows True and her best friend Bartleby the Cat, as they help the whimsical citizens of the Rainbow Kingdom, a wondrous, colorful universe filled with delightful and fantastical citizens. True is the only one with the ability to activate the magical powers of The Wishes of the Wishing Tree, solve problems in the Rainbow Kingdom, and empower viewers with her imagination, mindfulness, and empathy."
I actually really like this. It looks great, the world is colourful, and the world is full of imagination that could potentially result in a lot of varied gameplay. The "wishes" are a bit like Pokémon, in that there are lots of them - and True typically encounters a problem, visits the wishing tree, and enlists the help of three of them at a time. Bartleby is a fun sidekick, and there are nice side characters like the princess Grizelda, the Rainbow King and Grizelda's dog, Frookie. I think you could make a decent puzzle platformer or 3D collectathon out of something like this, where you use the wishes like power ups and encounter wacky scenarios. It already looks quite gamey to me.
44 Cats
This is another one I genuinely enjoy when we have it on. The title comes from an old Italian song, which actually features in the cartoon as it's catchy theme tune -- and as the name implies - this world is inhabited by a lot of cats. The character designs are nice, it's voiced well in the English release (Lampo is played by Sarah Natochenny who played Ash Ketchum for example), and I feel like it has a lot of components that could make it a hit with kids and help it translate to a videogame. The 4 main cats all have different abilities -- Lampo can detect things with his whiskers, Milady can tell when someone is lying, Meatball's stomach tells him when there's imminent danger and Pilou can transfix people with her big cute eyes and use that to get out of sticky situations. They are in a rock band together, so they all play instruments. They live with their owner, Granny Pina, who feeds them on kibble and Granny Pina's Magic Noodles - which when consumed, results in a Captain-Planet-like sequence where the characters all kind of level up and team up to do whatever needs doing... it's akin to the Power Rangers getting their zords or Sonic going Super-Sonic. The ancillary characters are fun too -- they have a friendly Bowser-like nemesis in the form of the cat "Boss" and his wealthy owner Winston, Boss has a couple of underling friends that he hangs around with.. there's a fashion cat, a space cat, an ice cream cat, a cop cat, a doctor cat, and any number of other cats to draw on for fun scenarios. There are a couple of nasty cat catchers who take strays away to the pound too..
When I was a kid, there were tonnes of cash-ins on my favourite films and shows - Turtles, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Batman, Spiderman, Transformers -- I'm not saying they were always good, but I have fond memories of quite a few. Things are a little different today: kids have a multitude of media options, videogames being among them, so the competition for a franchise is stronger than ever - but I still think kids are possibly being a bit under-served by games that get released.
Aside from the occasional game like My Friend Peppa Pig, those that are turned in to games don't seem to have the imagination or ambition that I think some of those things deserve. They might get a low-budget iPhone and Android game or something like that. Or they get a console game that really doesn't do justice to the show.
Thought it might be interesting to discuss anyway. I can think of more than a few but I'll start with these:
Fireman Sam
Fireman Sam is a bit old now, but the latest season released in Nov 2022. There have been a few videogame releases like this:
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|
..and they're quite mini-gamey. Think puzzles and touch-screen match-games, things like that.
Surely kids would love to control Sam or Elvis, or drive the firetruck "Jupiter" or the team's other vehicles.. these days, Sam and Team have a drone, boats, helicopters and more. Instead of cheap touch games, we could see some comedy from Norman or mount some actual rescue missions? Ponty Pandy is pretty well explored in the 3D series now - they have the town, the quayside, they've shown us inside the home of more-or-less every resident, there are farms, train routes in to the mountains, Tom and his mountain rescue helicopter - they deal with things like fires started by electricity, forest fires, river rescue, animal rescue -- some of the characters have an interest in aliens, archeology etc. The games just don't have any of that.
True and the Rainbow Kingdom
|
From Wikipedia:
"True and the Rainbow Kingdom follows True and her best friend Bartleby the Cat, as they help the whimsical citizens of the Rainbow Kingdom, a wondrous, colorful universe filled with delightful and fantastical citizens. True is the only one with the ability to activate the magical powers of The Wishes of the Wishing Tree, solve problems in the Rainbow Kingdom, and empower viewers with her imagination, mindfulness, and empathy."
I actually really like this. It looks great, the world is colourful, and the world is full of imagination that could potentially result in a lot of varied gameplay. The "wishes" are a bit like Pokémon, in that there are lots of them - and True typically encounters a problem, visits the wishing tree, and enlists the help of three of them at a time. Bartleby is a fun sidekick, and there are nice side characters like the princess Grizelda, the Rainbow King and Grizelda's dog, Frookie. I think you could make a decent puzzle platformer or 3D collectathon out of something like this, where you use the wishes like power ups and encounter wacky scenarios. It already looks quite gamey to me.
44 Cats
|
This is another one I genuinely enjoy when we have it on. The title comes from an old Italian song, which actually features in the cartoon as it's catchy theme tune -- and as the name implies - this world is inhabited by a lot of cats. The character designs are nice, it's voiced well in the English release (Lampo is played by Sarah Natochenny who played Ash Ketchum for example), and I feel like it has a lot of components that could make it a hit with kids and help it translate to a videogame. The 4 main cats all have different abilities -- Lampo can detect things with his whiskers, Milady can tell when someone is lying, Meatball's stomach tells him when there's imminent danger and Pilou can transfix people with her big cute eyes and use that to get out of sticky situations. They are in a rock band together, so they all play instruments. They live with their owner, Granny Pina, who feeds them on kibble and Granny Pina's Magic Noodles - which when consumed, results in a Captain-Planet-like sequence where the characters all kind of level up and team up to do whatever needs doing... it's akin to the Power Rangers getting their zords or Sonic going Super-Sonic. The ancillary characters are fun too -- they have a friendly Bowser-like nemesis in the form of the cat "Boss" and his wealthy owner Winston, Boss has a couple of underling friends that he hangs around with.. there's a fashion cat, a space cat, an ice cream cat, a cop cat, a doctor cat, and any number of other cats to draw on for fun scenarios. There are a couple of nasty cat catchers who take strays away to the pound too..
