For a franchise all about life saving pups in vehicles, the Paw patrol games had very little focus on the cars, helicopters and hovercrafts of the show. This changes with the latest addition to the Paw Patrol series of games, Paw Patrol Grand Prix. Paw Patrol Grand Prix is a kart racer from Outright Games. It takes the famous dogs and their owner from the TV show on to the race tracks in classic racing fashion. Including power-ups, boosts and shortcuts. Read on for our Paw Patrol Grand Prix review.
I’ve been playing the game with my kids on the PlayStation 4 but the game is available on most platforms. It is also included with Xbox Cloud Gaming. On Xbox Cloud Gaming, the game supports touch controls on mobile. This means the game can be played without a controller at hand. While playable, it does work better with a controller. I’ve been playing the game both through Xbox Cloud Gaming and on the PlayStation 4.
(Almost) everyone can play!
The game features all the pups from the series, but the new city pup Liberty from the recent movie doesn’t get to join the race. Mayor Humdinger makes an appearance as a voice over who throws obstacles on the track from outside the screen. Mayor Goodway is only present in voice overs in static dialogue “Cinematics”. The action itself is done solely by Ryder and his team of pups.
Taking Paw Patrol and making a kart racer might seem like a no-brainer. Because it is actually a great idea! Kart racers are generally a good starting point for kids to get into games. And if your child loves Paw Patrol, this is almost guaranteed to be a success.
Taking to the tracks
The controls are simple and easy to pick up, making it great for younger players. There is an autopilot assistive mode that almost rivals Tesla’s! It’s also on by default, so no trouble to let the kids get started by themselves. Considering all the stuff Ryder creates, the autopilot is probably the simplest of his inventions yet.
The races have plenty of obstacles and power-ups to keep things interesting. Apart from the power-ups, the game also include the ability to do a basic drift for a boost and character specific powers-ups. These can be charged up by picking up pup treats riddled around the tracks.
Choose your difficulty
To be honest, while the karts can feel a little floaty at times, I’ve had more fun with this than Mario Kart. It’s no Crash Team Racing, but it has something for all ages. Because of the higher difficulty settings available, these pups can actually pose a decent challenge! With the autopilot on and the easy difficulty setting, kids from ages of 3 and upwards can have fun with it. The more seasoned gamers can still have fun with the harder difficulty.
The visuals are bright and colorful, and the characters and environments are true to the show. A big bonus for the localisation which includes Swedish voice overs from the actors that do the show too!
The race tracks themselves are fairly decent too. They look like different parts of Adventure Bay we’ve seen in the show and look pretty good. They are full of turns without being too hard for a new gamer and most tracks include a sort of shortcut. These shortcuts are marked on the track mini map and it’s more a case of picking the slow but wide path or shorter but thinner and thus harder to manage path. But for the target audience, this is challenging enough.
An offline experience
There is a story mode in which you can essentially play all levels, unlock all characters and cosmetics. There are also free races, during which you can play solo or up to 4 players in local multiplayer. Keep in mind, local multiplayer is not available through Xbox Cloud Gaming. There is no online multiplayer. While slightly annoying when we wanted to set up a session with a friend’s kid, it is very understandable. It’s a game for kids and keeping them offline when able is not a bad idea.
Like all kart racers, the split-screen multiplayer also has the issue of a fixed difficulty. So if one player is significantly better than the other, you have to pick between the AI controlled racers being either too easy for that one player, or too good for the other. But that’s not a problem any kart racer seems to have figured out so far. It does become extra prominent when playing with children.
Conclusion
For anyone looking for a good first game or a fun kart racer to play with the kids, Paw Patrol Grand Prix is definitely a worthy entry. Get it for when they are young and upgrade to the best one of them all, Crash Team Racing, once they are older.
Paw Patrol Grand Prix gets my seal of approval and proves once again that Outright Games is a solid publisher for family games. Something that was lacking in the market just a few years ago, especially if you were not in the Nintendo ecosystem. You were basically limited to just a select few games and some indie titles. Paw Patrol Grand Prix may not be for the seasoned gamers, but we all need that entry point into gaming. With this game, Outright Games provides an entry point while also letting the parents and siblings have fun along the way as well! That was it for our Paw Patrol Grand Prix review.
Pro’s:
- Fun for the whole family
- Autopilot mode for the little ones
- Characters from the popular show
- Lots of supported spoken languages
- Can still pose a challenge on higher difficulties
Cons:
- Somewhat short on content for the price tag
- No online Multiplayer
Score 8.5
Paw Patrol Grand Prix is now available through Xbox Cloud Gaming. The review was made by DadPlaysGames. You can check out his channel by going here.