License holder since 2018, the publisher Bandai Namco regularly offers video game adaptations of Paw Patrol. To date, there are three episodes and if we decided to come back to last year’s one, it’s because it has just joined the Game Pass catalog. As in the animated series, we follow the adventures of a bunch of dogs carrying out civic missions and guided by a young boy called Ryder. From the HQ, the head of the group plans the interventions of his faithful companions. Each doggie has its own skill! Chase is a police dog with a great sense of smell, Marcus is a firefighter, Ruben takes care of the demolition, Rocky is the handyman of the gang, Stella takes care of the aerial missions, Zuma is the rescuer at sea and Everest is the specialist. mountain missions. In each of the episodes of the animated series, the group must complete an objective and Ryder coordinates all these small people to sort out the problems of the citizens of the Great Valley. The universe is colorful, the puppies have an adorable face and the scenario never lacks humor. On top of that, each canine drives a vehicle! It is all this set that makes children join Paw Patrol and the video game takes, of course, all the codes!
Paw Patrol Saves the Big Valley is a platform game suitable for young children. A mix of action and exploration, it is made up of seven levels featuring two to four puppies. To pass the obstacles, the player switches between the characters in order to use the various skills of the latter (smell, destruction, water lance, etc.). But it is also possible to have fun by calling on a second player! The progression is very linear and largely boils down to picking up treats and badges. From time to time, racing sequences are offered to energize the adventure, but the whole remains intentionally very simple. There are invisible walls all over the place to keep children from getting lost and the controls are very accessible. Under these conditions, the little ones can have fun immediately!
Compared to its predecessor, the game relies on the Super Patrol, a kind of over-boosted version of the doggies! Unfortunately, the developers have opted for frozen sequences instead of integrating these superpowers into the heart of the adventure. As a result, in the middle or at the end of the level, the puppies use their super doggie skills, but these boil down to completely soporific QTE phases. So, in addition to being uninteresting, these sequences break the rhythm of the game. It’s a bit of a shame, but it’s also in line with content that turns out to be very limited. The seven levels are dispatched in less than an afternoon and the mini-games extend the experience only very succinctly. There was undoubtedly better to do.
Far from being perfect, Paw Patrol saves the Big Valley is an adaptation that will delight the little ones. We find the codes of the series and the colorful realization will remind fans of the best moments of the animated series. Suffering from a limited lifespan and sequences lacking in ambition, this episode is however an interesting fulcrum for the future of the saga in video games. For all these reasons, we give it a score of 12/20.
