Care Bears Review

The Care Bears Present a Lesson in Caring

Not just one lesson, actually, because Care Bears: The Care Quests is not a single game. Instead of travelling through a "story" mode, all of the missions -- if you can call them that -- are selectable right from the start, each technically no more difficult than the next.

The Care Quests is really a set of twelve mini-games, each featuring one of the care bears performing a particular task. Most of these include a countdown timer, and stars to collect for high scores. The mini-games, or "quests", are as follows:

• It's Good To Have Friends features Friend Bear. You float around knocking on each of four windows, trying to match the toys that his friends have in their hands.

• Hide And Seek features Funshine Bear. Side-scrolling your way through the stage, you shout out (by pressing the 'A' button) to try and find your fellow Care Bears hiding behind the clouds.

• All We Need Is Love features Love-a-lot Bear. You float at the top of the screen, and time shooting hearts down at Star Buddies, trying to get two of them to face and meet. Drifting clouds can get in the way, making this mini-game just a bit more challenging.

• A Helping Hand features Cheer Bear. You must set rainbows in place, so that the mindless Star Buddies can make their way -- jumping over obstacles thanks to your rainbows -- completely across the side-scrolling stage.

• Let's Play features Champ Bear. Although the game says that this is "tennis", it is rather a colorful 3D version of Pong, except Champ Bear grabs the ball and throws it back, rather than hitting it. This is by far one of the most enjoyable mini-games in The Care Quests.

• Sweet Dreams features Bedtime Bear. Floating above your friends as they get close to hitting the hay, you must drop sand on the Care Bears to help them fall asleep.

• The Sun Always Shines features Grumpy Bear. A mini-side scrolling adventure, you must avoid the raindrops while trying to grab sun icons.

• Always Look On The Bright Side features Laugh-a-lot Bear. A side-scrolling shooter, you emit beams of joy to Care Bears and Star Buddies to make their days brighter.

• I Will Look After You features Tenderheart Bear. Ride a skateboard and jump to avoid obstacles, as you shoot hearts at Star Buddies, spreading your love.

• Let's Share features Share Bear. The Star Buddies want new (specific) toys, so as they float down on clouds, you need to grab them and hand them over to the appropriate Star Buddy in time.

• Lucky Day features Good Luck Bear. This stage is much like A Helping Hand, except you don't need to place rainbows in specific places. Rather, you shoot good luck four-leaf clovers at the Care Bears below, so that they can avoid the obstacles on their own.

• When Dreams Come True features Wish Bear. Toys drop from the sky, and you must match them with the Care Bears that emerge on either side.

Canadians Only Speak French?

Before you can jump in and start playing Care Bears: The Care Quests, you must select which country you are in. You can choose from Canada, United States and Mexico (based on their flags), but this is really just to pick which language the game will be run in. Strangely, although Canada has two official languages, when you choose the Canadian flag, the game is in French. Last I checked, you'd have to be in Quebec or Ottawa before a significant proportion of the population can understand French.

Visuals and Audio

The sights and sounds are simple, but as is this game. The graphics are colorful, and reasonably adequate; however, the backgrounds in all the mini-games look basically the same. You see a blue sky and floating clouds. Moreover, main characters like Lionheart have not been included in Care Bears: The Care Quests, and I think I know why. All the characters are simply palette swaps of one another, and Lionheart would require a character model of his own. The music, light and airy, fits the game, but again, is incredibly basic.

A Lesson Learned

Of course, if you're looking for the depth found in a Metal Gear or Prince of Persia, you are not going to find it here. Realistically, you can't possibly expect very much from Care Bears: The Care Quests, but this colorful title will keep pre-schoolers entertained at least for a little while. It would be nice if the mini-games were a little more varied, and if they included villians like No Heart, Beastly, and Shrieky, but I guess they wanted to avoid the dark side of the Care Bears. After all, it might be too scary.

In the end, Care Bears: The Care Quests will be enjoyable for the younger set for a short while, but, like most things targeted at children, don't expect this game to captivate their interest for long.