Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
When Bluey: The Videogame launched toward the end of 2023, I found it a faithful yet soulless adaptation of the cartoon phenomenon from developer Artax Games, cramming some of the show’s most iconic locations into a repetitive one-to-two-hour game. It wasn’t great.
Fast forward to 2026, and Halfbrick, the studio most famous for Fruit Ninja, is having a go at delivering something a bit more substantial. And y’know what? It mostly succeeds. Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen retains some of the repetitive nature of the first game, but it’s also a much more ambitious experience with some solid gameplay mechanics.
If I told you it takes place solely on the Heeler family’s kitchen table, that would actually be accurate – but also not. Y’see, Bluey and Bingo are having fun drawing before their dad, Bandit, playfully steals their Gold Pen. As is customary for the show, the family go to the absolute extreme by concocting a fabricated hand-drawn fantasy land in order to retrieve it. Chilli (Bluey and Bingo’s mum) draws the environments while the kids take on the role of the heroes.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
And so your adventure — written by the series’ creator, no less — takes place within the pages of Chilli’s delightful environmental drawings, ranging from quaint forests to icy landscapes and others, with a total of nine worlds to explore. After a short tutorial world that introduces you to the core mechanics, the rest are surprisingly vast, so much so that you can take advantage of fast-travel once you’ve located and activated each relevant signpost.
Visually, it all looks lovely. Like Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Gold Pen utilises a hand-drawn aesthetic, with characters in particular depicted as stylised versions of themselves, with stick-thin arms and colours that go just outside the lines – it’s adorable. The environments are a bit less stylised, though why Chilli decided to work in airport security when she can draw this well is beyond me.
The deliberately simplistic aesthetic means that Gold Pen looks and runs beautifully in both handheld and docked modes. There’s little difference between the two, with visuals that remain sharp throughout. As for performance, it feels like it’s gunning for 60fps, though it doesn’t always hit it. The drops are very minor though, so it’s not a major concern. Overall, it’s a huge step up from the last game.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
As for the gameplay, the whole experience is basically one big collectathon, which is great for kids and easy to grasp, but it’s also the primary source of repetition. Each world contains three sets of collectibles: ‘goose food’, which is required to proceed into the next area, smaller trinkets that number in the hundreds, and a dozen or so insects.
Everything you do is in service of obtaining goose food which, depending on the area, could be blueberries, cherries, strawberries, etc. With the smaller trinkets, for example, you can give 50 of these to an NPC in exchange for goose food, and same with the insects. You’ll need to grab a specific amount of goose food to unlock the next area, but each world has plenty, so you can always stay where you are and mop up every last item before proceeding.
Most of the main collectibles are obtained by completing simple platforming puzzles. By default, Bluey can’t jump, but she does have access to a rather handy magic wand used to activate moving platforms, shoot across gaps via a makeshift hookshot, or destroy brittle rocks. It’s all very straightforward, but some of the later puzzles will no doubt give younger players something to think about.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
I say Bluey can’t jump, but there are context-sensitive moments that alter her moveset. Pressing ‘A’ under normal circumstances will activate Bluey’s magic wand, but when you find yourself on a frozen lake, the same input will change to allow for some fancy, twirly jumps – kind of like when Mario frolics around in Freezeflame Galaxy.
Similarly, other areas might make use of the ‘B’ button, enabling Bluey to cross large gaps via a paraglider, or shoot into the sky with a rocket. It’s all kept very basic and easy-to-grasp for youngsters, which is nice.
In addition to platforming puzzles, there are instances where you’re given some more brain teasing tasks. The Snowlands area contains a bunch of statues, for instance, and you’ll need to figure out how many are facing north, south, and east. Elsewhere, an NPC in an earlier level challenges you to a game of rock, paper, scissors, providing specific coloured words during dialogue to indicate which option they’ll choose.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
Speaking of speaking, there are small snippets of text dialogue in Gold Pen, and so youngsters will need basic reading skills to fully enjoy it. That said, adults can always lend a hand, and I do appreciate that certain simple words are coloured to give children a bit of a leg up.
I think it misses a trick in not having voice acting throughout, though, as it’s really just limited to the cutscenes showing the Heeler family. But there’s nowhere near as much reading required as Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Dare I say it, but Gold Pen may understand its target audience a little better.
What is puzzling, however, is the lack of any two-player or co-op mode. Bluey and Bingo explore the environments together (with Bingo flapping around in her ‘Bingoose’ costume), and while the latter helps point out certain objects like fast-travel signposts, it feels odd that there’s no option to control both characters independently. It would’ve allowed for some nice parent-child multiplayer sessions, and its absence is a shame.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Ultimately, while the overall structure is definitely repetitive (I started each world feeling a little deflated that I essentially had to start from scratch again with no collectibles), I’m not sure kids will mind quite so much as they work their way through the roughly five-to-six-hour experience. I handed the controller to my daughter and, thanks to some familiarity with the show, she had a blast just roaming around and digging up trinkets here and there.
Kids will definitely enjoy this one, and thanks to the huge improvement in overall quality over the last game, I think adults may do, too.
Conclusion
Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is a substantial improvement over the last game, offering up a bunch of well-realised worlds to explore with charming visuals and engaging puzzles. It retains the essence of the original show, but thanks to the adorable narrative, Bluey and Bingo can finally break free from the overly-familiar TV locations.
Repetition does quickly seep in thanks to the focus on collectibles, but I’d wager that younger audiences probably won’t care about this too much. The lack of a proper co-op mode is a bizarre omission, however, and the experience would have definitely benefitted from voice acting throughout. Still, this is a fine effort from Halfbrick, and an easy recommendation for the summer break from school.
