A simple glance at the cute-yet-frightening boxart of
Plushees for the Nintendo DS and you might be tempted to group it with the
multitude of low quality kids' games that have suffocated Nintendo handhelds
for years. However, despite its appearance as a stuffed animal themed minigame
collection, it manages to overturn poor expectations with simple and light
goal-oriented gameplay. Plushees, despite its inadvertently unsettling
exterior, is actually a solid choice for the right age group and may very well captivate
budding gamers of the eight-and-below set.
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Plushees' premise is simple: through the power of
imagination or dark magic, stuffed animals have come alive and are naturally in
need of love and companionship that only you can provide. To do this you must
purchase plushees carnival-style with tickets earned from the game's two main
modes,
Once you earn the plushee of your dreams you can use it in
the game's other major mode, Plushee Play. Plushee Play
includes four games: Simon Says, Jump Rope, Hide-n-Seek, and Butterfly Catch.
Simon Says is like the memorization game of its namesake, only in this
iteration you select which plushee acted out the correct command that either you
or the computer selected. In Jump Rope you can make your plushee hop in time in
two ways, either by tapping it in time or by drawing prompted patterns on the
touchscreen, the latter of which is more frantic and fun. Hide-n-Seek might be
more accurately likened to a game of tag and features your plushee as it runs
around trying to hug other plushees by choosing the correct icon of the other
plushee on the touch screen. Butterfly Catch is somewhat broken, as it is very
difficult to perceive the depth of the butterflies your plushee is chasing
around the screen; luckily, the game is lenient and you don't have to be too
close to catch them. You earn points instead of tickets in this mode, but
earned points can be converted into tickets, so these games still have
incentive to be played. While the games in Plushee Play are a bit deeper than
the arcade games, the arcade games still have a simple, general appeal that
these lack.
Plushees' presentation is adequately cute. The stuffed
animal cast isn't overly sweet, but certainly sport a classic soft, rotund
look. When the game uses 3D environments, such as the one used in Hide-n-Seek,
it's very simplistic but adequate. Special mention must be made of the techno
track in the music selections: this trance-like tune is catchy but seems
hilariously out of place given the game's context. The game also features a
multiplayer option should you find another player with a Plushees game card.
Of course, given that Plushees is about earning stuffed animals and playing games with them, it certainly won't be appropriate for an older child who has already been introduced to a franchise like Pokemon. While some of the games are generally fun and somewhat addictive, such as Alley Ball or Ka-Plinko, the subject matter of the other modes might only be appropriate for children age eight or younger. But, given the straightforward goal-based nature of the game, Plushees still manages to stand out in a kids' market overcrowded with licensed games of questionable quality - and at only $20, Plushees is even easier to recommend to parents confused by the overwhelming mediocre choices available to young gamers.
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