Take the wheel of the vehicle of your favorite Paw Patrol Pups like Chase, Skye and Rubble (on the Double!) and of course the puppy in name only: Ryder. All favorite pups and locations from the series return in this racing game suitable even for the very young. Will you win the cup of the Paw Patrol Grand Prix?
Background
If you are not already familiar with Paw Patrol, you have probably had little contact with young children in recent years. Anyone with young offspring, nephews and/or nieces will be familiar with Paw Patrol – the series about an organization consisting mainly of a group of dogs who all perform a useful and heroic task well suited to the dog breed. These dogs have a name that fits their task very well and they operate an equally useful matching vehicle.
Chase is a German shepherd and, as a police dog, likes to set off in pursuit in his car. The dalmatian Marshall obviously drives a fire truck and skye is a Cockapoo (cross between a cocker spaniel and a poodle) who flies in the sky in her rescue helicopter. Rocky is a mixed breed who rides around in a garbage truck. Not every dog is quite a matching task at first glance, as Rex in his doggy wheelchair is a Bernese pup who is an expert on dinosaurs. Kids apparently still like dinosaurs a lot, so I just turn a blind eye. By the way, there are a whole bunch of other pups, and in total you can play with 10 different characters each with their unique vehicles in Paw Patrol Grand Prix.
Gameplay
Paw Patrol Grand Prix is a typical arcade/kart racer. Players choose one of the colorful characters and go karting on a track full of turns, hills, boost/turbo fields and weapons to collect and use during the race. Weapons range from boosts to pies you can throw on the road to reduce your opponents’ speed. What’s fun is that each puppy (and Ryder) has a unique power. By collecting dog bones scattered around the track, you can build up this power. Some of these unique powers are significantly more useful than others, though. Tracker, for example, has a lasso that allows you to pull a player in front of you toward you, but if you’re already in first place, this power isn’t that useful while Rubble can just dump a big rock behind him.
Speaking of Rubble, this pup repeats his catchphrases particularly often and all doggies do that. For smaller players, of course, it’s great to hear the catchphrases of their favorite doggies echoed in the game, but for the tagging along parent, it can sometimes get a little boring. Fortunately, you can easily turn off those catchphrases.
The game includes split-screen multiplayer for 2 to 4 players, an option to play some races in single player mode, and also an adventure mode where you play some 17 races with a single character and are presented with simple adventures. During this mode you unlock new characters, as well as hats, different looks for the cars and even personalized smoke for the exhaust. Plenty to unlock and once you complete the adventure mode with all the characters you basically unlock everything.
Conclusion
When reviewing board games, movies, books and also video games it is important to observe and know the audience well. The audience for this game is (very young) children who would like to play a video game about their favorite pups. Therefore, unless a parent or older sibling is going to play this game with young children, they are basically not the target audience for this game. In terms of gameplay and complexity, this game is also overwhelmingly aimed at those very youngest players. I would like to describe Paw Patrol Grand Prix as an arcade/kart racer (like Mario Kart), but with an extra set of side wheels. The opponents are easy to beat even on the more difficult difficulty levels, the game offers aids like power steering and the tracks are geared to be as clear as possible and also easier to ride for little players who have not yet 100% developed their video game motor skills.
It can also be compared to playing a bowling game without a gutter. Little players participate in the game without experiencing the frustration of not being able to pass or win certain levels, while still having plenty of challenge. Older players may get bored with the simpler gameplay and childish voices and catchphrases, but then again, they are not the target audience. Those youngest players have no problem with the fact that the game may be more random in terms of weapons at times, that the catchphrases are repeated and that it is generally a less serious game. For young players, this is an ideal way to enjoy racing in a very entertaining way and they can also easily play this game independently. By the way, multiple languages are selectable including Dutch and there are a number of expansions available for extra racing fun.
