Developer: Sirius Games A/S
Publisher: American Game Factory
Release Date: 11-15-05
Okay look, I’ve got almost a thousand GBA games to cover, and they’re not going to all be Pokémon and Advance Wars. Most of them are going to be more like Care Bears: Care Quest. At least I get to talk about my weird obsession with Care Bears when I was in high school. Somehow, I got really into watching reruns of Care Bears on late night Disney Channel, and I carried this over into my school identity. The strangest part is that this, and my other obscure interests, only made me more popular and influential. Actually, if this game had come out a few years earlier I might’ve bought it. Luckily, it came out in 2005 when I was obsessed with something else and didn’t have to pay for it. I mostly blocked 2005 from my memories though so I can’t tell you what I was in to then. So anyway, Care Bears!
You mostly get two types of kid games on GBA: platformers and mini game compilations. This one is mini games, so at least it’s a little bit different than the Cabbage Patch Kids game I just played. It has twelve different games to choose from of varying degrees of quality and difficulty. The game keeps track of high scores, so there is some replay value which is nice. It would keep a child busy for more than a half hour. I was surprised how difficult couple of the games were, especially the final one called “When Dreams Come True.” It has you collecting toys to match the Bears on the side of the screen. The challenge is that the toys are random and if the Bears wait too long, they will wander off. So many times, I collected the right toy just to have it become the wrong toy before I could turn it in. I also enjoyed the more platform-based levels like the Lemmings-inspired level where I had to build rainbow bridges to help various characters get over obstacles. The game at least has a little meat on its bones.
Of course, a few of the games came up short. The matching game was too easy, but it was the first game so maybe this was intentional. The worst of the bunch is handball tennis. It moved incredibly slow and had very little strategy. I also don’t care for the graphics much. Why do the bears have squished noses that look like pig snouts? Also, most of the graphics consist of clouds and rainbows. This is logical for a Care Bears game I suppose but it doesn’t make for very interesting graphics. There’s so much adorable stuff the developers could’ve put in it. Instead, it’s all very generic.
I know I sound like I enjoyed it, and I did in a way, but it still doesn’t rate particularly high. It’s still a lazy licensed game without much substance or craftsmanship. It gets out of the red but doesn’t get very high in the purple “ok” column. I haven’t had a purple game in a while, so it’s kind of exciting. I liked it better than Wild Gunman, but I’d rather race with Pocketbike Racer again. The developer of the game, Sirius A/S, only made a handful of games. They made two mafia games for PC and four GBA kid games. I may go check out their other GBA games and see how they are. How many kid games do you feel like reading about? On second thought don’t tell me. Perhaps it’s better if I just assume the answer, is infinity.
(images are from mobygames.com)
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