Care Bears: Unlock The Magic Nintendo Switch Review 4.5/10 (also available on PS4/5) "lacking charm and magic" 🐻🐻‍❄️🐼 @MaximumEntmt

As a man in my forties, The Care Bears were very much a part of my childhood, and I watched show a lot as a kid, I was convinced that there was a Care Bears game on the C64, but in researching this article, I have very much been proven wrong, as the first released Care Bears title was in 2004! (WTF!!! - ed)

Regardless of my foggy memories, Care Bears: Unlock The Magic is unfortunately a charmless dud that feels like a half-finished game that had the Care Bears licensing slapped on during development, and really doesn’t feel that it’s taking full advantage of the rich, generation-spanning Care Bears heritage.

Effectively a single-player collection of mini-games, with an included digital art book, Care Bears: Unlock The Magic has an adventure mode that has you dancing along a 3D board in a 3D take on Snake, driving the Care Bear bus to pick up hearts in a simple vehicular section, pogoing across rivers, popping coloured bubbles a la Puzzle Bobble, and several more derivative mini-games that combine to allow you to make your way across the overworld game board, of which certain section are blocked by thunderstorms that require a certain amount of points to pass. The music is gentle and lilting, the frame rate 60fps, and the mini-games do ramp up in difficulty – so this isn’t a mindless trudge - but they always felt arbitrary, and there was no sense of charm or a love for the licence at hand.

SUMMARY

At it’s current price, Care Bears: Unlock The Magic is a tough game to recommend as it just feels like a compilation of forgettable – yet competent – mini-games that feel more at home on a mobile device. It was far too slight to engage me as an adult, and my four year old had no interest in the game, so unless you have a youngster that really has a connection with the franchise, this is a game that makes me dress up in my Grumpy Bear costume and sulkily fold my arms.

4.5/10

💧MELTED💧

🔗Care Bears: Unlock The Magic | Nintendo Switch games | Games | Nintendo UK

Detective: The Motel Xbox Series X Review 4.5/10 "A Motel That Could Use a Lick of Paint" 🔎🏨 #GameDev #IndieGame @K148_GS @JanduSoft

A game made by a solo developer, Detective: The Motel puts you in the well-trodden shoes of a detective that has arrived at a roadside motel to solve a murder. In order to complete your investigation, you are given a task sheet that lists 15 points that must be solved in order to close the case. 

You must discover key points such as the murderer, the victim, who the other tenants of the motel are, as well as which rooms in which they dwell. My initial thoughts were positive, yes the game felt very ‘asset-y’, there was minimal music (aside from the menu music which was reminiscent of Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy – good), and it was all set in a small building – but these are to be expected when a game is made on such a small budget, and these limitations can result in extremely tight, potent gameplay and narrative.

🚨👮 Autobahn Police Simulator 3 Review 4.5/10 "New ideas can’t paper over the issues that carry through the series" 🚔 @AerosoftGmbH #IndieGames #GameDev

I reviewed Autobahn Police Simulator 2 back at the end of 2020, and, whilst I enjoyed my time with the game, the unavoidable technical issues really hacked away at what was a solid premise with some great ideas floating around. In my review of the previous entry, I stated:

 “Whilst Autobahn Police Simulator 2 is a tough one to recommend due to the above-mentioned issues, I really hope that a third game comes out and has more time spent on the basics such as camera work, animation, controls and overall smoothness.”

Unfortunately, this is not the case.