A PAW Patrol Game That Is Sadly NOT Ready For Action
A couple of facts for you. Did you know that PAW Patrol is Canadian? And that it’s been on our screens for twelve years now? That’s a lot of time to be on a roll, on the case, and ready to fly.
My connection to PAW Patrol has weakened somewhat in the past two years, as my kids have decided they’re too old for it. In that period, it seems PAW Patrol have gone a bit Monster Truck and developed some Rescue Wheels. Not only are they saving the people of Adventure Bay, but presumably they are driving over and crushing cars as they do it.
It’s the perfect set up for a sequel to 2022’s PAW Patrol: Grand Prix, then. New cars, more offroading, and a tie-in to the latest cartoon.
It’s also worth noting that we really quite liked PAW Patrol: Grand Prix, handing it a 3.5/5 in review, not least because it had well thought-out accessibility tools that made it a perfect gateway to karting/racing games for young ’uns. That information becomes important later on.
The shape of PAW Patrol: Rescue Wheels is roughly the same. There’s a Free Play mode for a quick dip into individual races and arena matches (think Mario Kart World’s coin mode, except collecting pup treats); a Rescue Wheels Championship that has you moving through a map of sequential tracks and arenas to unlock racers; and Pup Cups, which are three-times-four races in a traditional Grand Prix format.
Whichever one you choose, you’ll be unlocking skins, decals and exhausts to modify the Rescue Wheels. These are doled out in measly fashion: you don’t unlock green paint, you unlock green paint solely for an individual car, so the cosmetics are a little piecemeal.
The proof is in the racing pudding, however. Does PAW Patrol: Rescue Wheels build on Grand Prix’s stable foundations? Is it a Rider or a proper Humdinger?
A Sequel That’s A Bit Rocky
There’s a bit of a divide in our household, as we answer these questions very differently. I’ll start with my thoughts rather than my kids’, as I’m an adult and this is my review, thank you very much.
In my view, it’s impossible to see past astonishing design decisions and – frankly – lazy development in PAW Patrol: Rescue Wheels. Where Grand Prix was competent and sure-pawed, this feels rushed and barely tested.
Take the game’s major new mechanic: the stunts. Press X and your truck will lurch about on its hydraulics, filling up a stunt bar. With a complete stunt bar, you can pull off a Max Stunt on a ramp, which sends pup and vehicle soaring into the sky with a significant boost.
Sounds solid, right? But hear this: you can pull off stunts anywhere on the track, not just at jumps or ramps. What this means is that, for optimal play, you’re spamming X all of the frigging time. Which hurts. Not to mention that it looks beyond stupid, as you and the CPU players (they never stop stunting) perform a kind of synchronised Pimp My Ride. Races look goofy as hell with everyone bump and grinding.
You can activate an Auto-Stunt, which is presented as an option for young players but everyone should activate it immediately. Honestly, do yourself a favour. But it doesn’t stop the camera bobbling about as it’s locked to your chassis rather than somewhere more sensible, like in the air. And you’re still watching Fast & Furry-ous with the dogs on their hydraulics.
The boost you get is a death wish. You can’t steer left or right when in a boosted jump (or any jump, as it happens), which means you’re often propelled off the track if you’re not lined up. All those stunts you chained will very often end up in an out-of-bounds.
The PAW Flaws Keep Coming
It doesn’t stop there. If you land outside the track (which happens more than you’d want and invariably on the final lap) you’ll be dumped randomly. We’ve found ourselves three corners back from where we exited, in final place or thereabouts because PAW Patrol: Rescue Wheels likes to have the CPU locked to the back of your car, no matter what speed you travel. Other times we restarted next to a wall, or just before a chasm that was impossible to cross with the lack of acceleration.
There are a host of other issues. Auto-Drive, a guide to the racing line for younger players, takes an iron grip on the car. It feels like a Tesla self-drive rather than a guide, and younger players will wonder why they can’t move their car properly. The weapons aren’t intuitive (confetti looks beneficial but is actually a trap); there’s no information about whether you’ve hit another player, so no joy if you’ve fired backwards and hit someone; and we haven’t even got to the lack of cars, tracks and cosmetics.
But even as I write this, I’m not sure how important this is to the average six-year-old. I played PAW Patrol: Rescue Wheels as an adult who expected the basics of a kart game and was left wanting.
It’s a good time to let my kids grip the wheel of this review.
They thought it was fine. The stunts were silly and easy to ignore. Falling off the track was a pain and meant the occasional squabble, but – as Mario Kart fans – it was part-and-parcel of their rivalry. The repetition of tracks and cars meant less as repetition just doesn’t bother kids as much. Having listened to Golden by K-Pop Demon Hunters roughly 750 times, I can attest to this.
An Inoffensive Gateway Racer
In short, they saw PAW Patrol: Rescue Wheels as an inoffensive, casual attempt at a karting game. When I moaned about something, they wafted it away. Which is to say that maybe, just maybe, Outright Games have focused on the right things, failed at things that don’t really matter, and there’s still a gateway racer rattling around in there. Which is hardly a glowing endorsement, but not the critical impaling that I had planned.
So, who wins? Well, I’m edging towards a compromise. Controversial, I know. If you’re an adult, lop a half mark from this score. It’s irretrievably flawed and I want to shake the designers and ask “WHY?”. If you’re sub-ten-years-old, add a half mark.
PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels: Championship is thinner and more charmless than PAW Patrol: Grand Prix but – hey! – it’s got Rescue Wheels in it. It just about, by the skin of its teeth, retains its role as a gateway game for prospective racers.
Important Links
Va-room – PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels: Championship is a New Monster Truck Adventure – https://www.thexboxhub.com/va-room-paw-patrol-rescue-wheels-championship-is-a-new-monster-truck-adventure/
PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels: Championship Brings Monster Truck Racing to PC & Console this Halloween – https://www.thexboxhub.com/paw-patrol-rescue-wheels-championship-brings-monster-truck-racing-to-pc-console-this-halloween/
PAW Patrol Rescue: Championship is on the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/paw-patrol-rescue-wheels-championship/9NJQ3J8L1MDL/0010
