The world of Peppa Pig comes to life on PS4: here is our review of the latest of her adventures, with many lessons and several “buts”
Between the writer and the review that you are reading, many setbacks intervened, but also our opinion of Peppa Pig: Adventures around the world remains hotly contested. On the one hand, this title lends itself to an entirely contextualized assessment in terms of reference target. On the other hand, however, a single 3+ (and 7-) from PEGI on the cover cannot justify the lack of ambition of the title with pre-school age alone. Let me be clear: in terms of animation, yours truly lived his childhood between the 1994 Batman animated series and the highly underrated Disney equivalent, Gargoyles.
Despite the embarrassment of the generation gap (and coming to terms with the fact that we have become the old grumps we detested in our time), we understood what the kids of Outright Games, the development team that also gave birth to the previous transposition of the character. By bringing the world of the piglet to the console, in an almost indistinguishable way from the animated series, the developers also had a very specific goal at heart. The educational purpose is everything. However, it is also true that other brands wear the 3+ with more dignity, even making their damn figure in animation too.
“Pa’, sganciace do spicci p’a crocier” – Review Peppa Pig: Adventures around the world
This will be a short review, because the plot Peppa Pig’s Adventures Around the World remains similarly unpretentious. In the guise of a customizable avatar (more on that later), as new neighbors of the eponymous pig it’s our job to keep her company. And, while we’re at it, also take advantage of one’s generosity cruise captain. We understand what the educational goal of the developers is: to educate children with the controller in the hands of very basic notions of geography. How the Pig family willingly agrees to travel whenever the player decides could give a very wrong message (“Dad, shall we go on the ship too?”).
All this translates, together with the (presumed) newborn fictitious counterparts of Australia, Italy, France and so on, into an interactive episode of the animated series. We do not intend what has been said as a real compliment, but in this sense we would like to reassure any parents who are reading these lines. If you want a transposition that is “like cardboard”, you have found it. At the same time, the animated series’ intent to present itself to the viewer with easy-to-replicate designs is a godsend, if it can inspire children to one day work in animation (which they need). Well, then, that we do it here too, if we want to find added value.
Controls from NES – Peppa Pig Review: Adventures Around the World
For consistency with the reference material, the gameplay borders on lethargic. And we don’t mean ‘lethargic’ as when we used the term to review Eastward, but a slowness imposed by game design in order to take accessibility to excess. Involuntary tongue twisters aside, the gameplay translates into the movement of the avatar in a presumed freely explorable area, but in reality limited only to moving (slowly) left and right. Any change of course upwards or downwards is at the discretion of the game itself, but in general the final result is that of a “playable first grade drawing”.
There are two types of areas to explore. The first consists of quarter by Peppa herself, which offers settings such as the kindergarten, the playground with adjoining puddles, the house and other places. Once you reach the porto, the player can go as far as the destinations aired by the pre-launch marketing, where, however, each visit is strictly guided and is limited to regurgitating the best-known (and, at times, stereotyped – Italy, we’re looking at you) information on the countries visited. It occasionally emerges as well the signal to press a button, but don’t expect your little ones to be asked to squash two together. We appreciate the “my first controller” intent.
Ppp-pimp my Ppp-pig – Peppa Pig Review: Adventures Around the World
Perhaps to give the player the impression of being in the world of the deli heroine, the title presents us with the option of customize the avatar with which to “face” the adventure. In this sense, we were pleasantly surprised by the possibility of choice, given the very few demands present in other aspects of the game. From the hats (which have seen us turn towards the pirate one for… various reasons) to the species of belonging, passing through the color of the shirt and the pigmentation, nothing really seems to be missing. Dialogue aside, but seeing ourselves limited to a few lines and the occasional “Me, me, me” is another reminder to the target audience.
Rather, due to the simplicity of the basic idea, we cannot define ourselves as particularly happy to have stumbled upon the occasional bug. From the presence of the command prompts even after the “minigame” (in which to press a button with the rhythm we want) to the superimposition of the avatar on Peppa, this is where the harsh reality of licensed games comes out. Clearly it’s nothing on which to condemn the game excessively, but just as we have to contextualize the intent of the developers, it also seems normal to do the same with the smudges. When a PS4 game takes up only 6 gigabytes of internal memory, to the third softlock some “Something you had to do” can escape us.
Peppa Pigs and Pastels – Peppa Pig Review: Adventures Around the World
And we are already in the Cesarini area with the technical assessment, starting from graphics engine. There’s not much more we can add, honestly. The intent was to give justice to the art direction from “You can do it at home” of the animated series and the developers have succeeded in a big way. When the animation combines Newgrounds-style movements with drawings with such amiably “wrong” contours (like the curve of the pigs’ cheeks, intersected in the nose) and spiced them up with stick figure limbs, success would have been guaranteed on PS3 too. Which makes bugs even easier to spot.
Let’s talk about the sonorous. The simple and soothing melodies of the series are felt here too and help to further create the “playable episode” effect. The dubbing in Italian then it seems to act as icing on the cake, if it weren’t for a fundamental problem. Do any of you who started a family remember the second fight between Sonic and Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2? The exchanges of jokes are calibrated to a language, and given the presence of monosyllables in English it is clear that the timing of each joke must be calculated to the millisecond. Yet, sadly, hearing the characters interrupt each other with this frequency gave the final blow to suspension of disbelief.
Final considerations
We know we don’t have to be too harsh with Peppa Pig: Adventures Around the World. But it is also true that behind every novice player there is also a paying parent. This “holiday” in the sweetened world of the piggy will cost you 40 euro. It’s up to you whether to dedicate Sony’s still roaring hardware to truly minimal use of its potential at this price point, or to look beyond. We don’t know how far to guarantee for PlayStation platforms, but in principle the PEGI recommended age rating includes 3+ titles that are much better than this.
However, if your progeny (or yourself, being the franchise now nineteen) loves the series in a particular way, nothing prevents you from lightening your wallet and, why not, maybe even your thoughts. Even in almost half of its last decade before the “antas”, the writer found himself with a stupid smile on his face once he obtained the various trophies. If you are looking for titles to platinum (within an afternoon, if you want, which is regrettable), this adaptation could be for you. Unless you intend to enjoy it like Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson and Dan “Danny” Avidan on the Game Grumps YouTube channel, that is in an ironic way. In that case, we’ll look the other way. Nobody judges you.
This was what we thought. But what is your opinion? Tell us belowand as always, don’t forget to stay on tuttotek for all the most important news for gamers and more.
Peppa Pig, for better or for worse
Plus points
- Graphically very faithful to the animated series…
- Structurally very simple…
- Accessible with Italian dubbing…
Points against
- … and there’s more to come!
- … but despite this, it has bugs
- … which, however, sometimes patches the timing
- Disproportionate longevity/price ratio