A colourful puzzle platformer with your favourite Nick Jr. characters
By Paul Hunter
Dora the Explorer, Blue from Blue's Clues, Chase and Skye from Paw Patrol—anyone with kids are probably very familiar with these names. Outright Games and Melbot Studios have brought all popular TV stars into a new puzzle platformer game for the whole family: Nick Jr. Party Adventure! This game lets you dive into a colourful universe, solve puzzles and unlock tons of characters from the shows, all while taking part in an extraordinary party.
The game begins with a four-step character creator where you can choose your hair style and colour, skin colour, eyes and mouth, with several options to choose from for next. Next, Dora the Explorer guide you through this interactive adventure alongside your new custom-created character.
The game selection screen is arranged lke a pizza, with each slice representing an iconic Nick Jr. cartoon ranging from Paw Patrol, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Santiago of the Seas, and, of course, Dora the Explorer. Within each cartoon universe there are more than 15 levels where your goal is to find decorations and a few friends from that universe. In total, there are six different Nick Jr. shows and 25 familiar characters for you to rescue.
In Nick Jr. Party Adventure, Dora will teach you the basics of the game, which is very simple and easy for kids to learn. The gist is this: your characters will auto-walk and you have to trigger various switches as you guide them to an end goal. Switches can range from raising or lowering a block to complete platforms your characters can walk across all the way to spring pads used to launch characters to new areas.
Right before your characters enter zone where a switch can be triggered they slow their walking spreed as a helpful aid for younger players. Completing levels is a fairly easy task, although some levels require a little thought to figure out the correct order to hit switches.
As you progress, levels do become slightly more advanced and could feature multiple different types of triggers, but instructions are always located in the bottom left corner in case your child ever needs a reminder. As you guide characters to the level's exit door, there are accessories collectibles you can nab, which can be traded in later for new gear to equip your character. As you progress, you will unlock familiar companions who you also have to guide through the exit door to advance.
There's a good variety of clothing and accessory items you can unlock in Nick Jr. Party Adventure to customize your character. There are new shirts, hats, shoes, glasses and more to unlock, and what's neat is they're all related to the cartoon universe you're in. For instance, you can unlock Santiago's signature pirate hat or Dora's bead bracelet. Before starting a mission you can see how many collectibles there are, and you can restart missions to collect any that you may have missed.
The further you progress in the game the more complex the puzzles can get, so that's why it's great this game supports local two-player co-operative. Mom or dad can join in to help at any time, with task getting distributed, for example, player one takes care of moving the bridges while player two can move the blocks. This makes levels a lot of easier for kids and lets parents share some nice bonding time with their child.
If you're wondering about the game's age range, given the cartoon properties featured it'll likely appeal to kids aged 3-5 years old. There are some puzzles that could be a little challenging for kids that aged though, so I do recommend playing the game together as a family.
Final Score: 7/10 - Good
Developer: Melbot Studios
Publisher: Outright Games
Genre: Puzzle, Platformer
Modes: Single-player
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
Dora the Explorer, Blue from Blue's Clues, Chase and Skye from Paw Patrol—anyone with kids are probably very familiar with these names. Outright Games and Melbot Studios have brought all popular TV stars into a new puzzle platformer game for the whole family: Nick Jr. Party Adventure! This game lets you dive into a colourful universe, solve puzzles and unlock tons of characters from the shows, all while taking part in an extraordinary party.
The game begins with a four-step character creator where you can choose your hair style and colour, skin colour, eyes and mouth, with several options to choose from for next. Next, Dora the Explorer guide you through this interactive adventure alongside your new custom-created character.
The game selection screen is arranged lke a pizza, with each slice representing an iconic Nick Jr. cartoon ranging from Paw Patrol, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Santiago of the Seas, and, of course, Dora the Explorer. Within each cartoon universe there are more than 15 levels where your goal is to find decorations and a few friends from that universe. In total, there are six different Nick Jr. shows and 25 familiar characters for you to rescue.
In Nick Jr. Party Adventure, Dora will teach you the basics of the game, which is very simple and easy for kids to learn. The gist is this: your characters will auto-walk and you have to trigger various switches as you guide them to an end goal. Switches can range from raising or lowering a block to complete platforms your characters can walk across all the way to spring pads used to launch characters to new areas.
Right before your characters enter zone where a switch can be triggered they slow their walking spreed as a helpful aid for younger players. Completing levels is a fairly easy task, although some levels require a little thought to figure out the correct order to hit switches.
As you progress, levels do become slightly more advanced and could feature multiple different types of triggers, but instructions are always located in the bottom left corner in case your child ever needs a reminder. As you guide characters to the level's exit door, there are accessories collectibles you can nab, which can be traded in later for new gear to equip your character. As you progress, you will unlock familiar companions who you also have to guide through the exit door to advance.
There's a good variety of clothing and accessory items you can unlock in Nick Jr. Party Adventure to customize your character. There are new shirts, hats, shoes, glasses and more to unlock, and what's neat is they're all related to the cartoon universe you're in. For instance, you can unlock Santiago's signature pirate hat or Dora's bead bracelet. Before starting a mission you can see how many collectibles there are, and you can restart missions to collect any that you may have missed.
The further you progress in the game the more complex the puzzles can get, so that's why it's great this game supports local two-player co-operative. Mom or dad can join in to help at any time, with task getting distributed, for example, player one takes care of moving the bridges while player two can move the blocks. This makes levels a lot of easier for kids and lets parents share some nice bonding time with their child.
If you're wondering about the game's age range, given the cartoon properties featured it'll likely appeal to kids aged 3-5 years old. There are some puzzles that could be a little challenging for kids that aged though, so I do recommend playing the game together as a family.
The Verdict
To help test out this game I played it with my son (who's big into Blaze and Paw Patrol!), and while he thought the first few levels were simple, the later levels provided a nice challenge that he thoroughly enjoyed. It was a great experience overall, especially with six popular cartoon properties and a couple dozen recognizable characters to unlock and make friends with. This game fulfills its purpose nicely: it recrates the magic of Nick Jr. franchies and invites children to explore and learn!Final Score: 7/10 - Good
Nick Jr. Party Adventure details
Platform: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PCDeveloper: Melbot Studios
Publisher: Outright Games
Genre: Puzzle, Platformer
Modes: Single-player
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
A key was provided by the publisher.