Tag Archives: Care Bears

Care Bears: Care Quest Review

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The Care Bears is one of those franchises that makes you smirk whenever it is brought up. However when you think about it just a little bit harder you remember that it is a really moving series that brings tears to your eyes. The kind of title that makes you remember how wonderful the series can really be. Well I knew that I had to buy this game and let me tell you something…..it’s okay. It’s not bad and it’s not that good. It’s the kind of game that you play for a little while and then put down for good. It’s a collection of 12 minigames so it’s not particularly long after all.

There is no story and there are no other modes. The minigames are all that you get and I suppose what you can aim for is to get high scores in all of the minigames as many times as you can. They range from being extremely short games to being fairly long. The first and last minigames were definitely the longest ones I’d say since they went on for at least 5 rounds while most had 3. The games all start to get pretty similar so I’m thinking the devs were running out of ideas by the end.

The best minigame is easily a platformer where you have to run to the goal while trying to dodge the rain drops. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart and you have a health bar so you can actually die. Definitely make sure you take it slow as you go through. The scores are all based on how many stars you collect and none of them are time based. So slow and steady is literally your best option throughout. I liked that you could actually run and jump here.

A few of the minigames have you flying in the air as you drop different things on the Carebears. Sometimes you are putting them to sleep, other times you are making them fall in love, etc. There are a few different remakes of the same minigame here. Considering there are only 12 in total, that may make you raise an eyebrow but at least the gameplay is smooth. The one where you are firing off an energy blast to wake up the Bears was pretty fun.

Then you’ve also got a minigame where you have to match the bears together. It’s a very classic kind of matching puzzle that you would have seen often throughout the free game industry. It’s always fun but my main gripe is that it’s too slow. When you make a match you have to wait for the Bears to slowly walk away before your next attempt and those second really add up. It’s the little things that expose this game for not being an ultimate AAA title. A truly hype Care Bears game would definitely be possible with their flight and energy blast abilities but I guess that might not be in the cards for a while.

The final minigame has gits falling down from the skies and the Carebears need the right ones. So you have to grab them and give to the bear but unfortunately we ended with the worst one. It is completely RNG which gifts rain down and they go slowly. So whether you win or lose…you have no influence on the outcome. The worst part is that when you lose you have 3 lives so the whole game takes an eternity either way. A minigame should be fun and fast. Give me 30 quick minigames over 10 long ones for example. Wario Microgames and Mario Party are two of the best series in terms of balancing that.

The graphics are okay but nothing special. They’re nice and colorful so that helps the GBA title hold up better than most. The soundtrack is more on the nonexistent side but again that does make sense since this wasn’t the highest budget kind of title. It’s not like you would want to go all out on a minigame compilation right? So the technical elements aren’t really doing the game any favors but it didn’t really need them. To move up either way the game would have needed a lot more content. A game this short cannot get a positive score no matter what. It’s just too extreme. Still, it is a fun time and so that’s why it manages to hang in there at the middle.

Overall, The Care Bears may be out there to help make sure that everybody has fun but at the end that’s about all that they are doing. This game isn’t trying to rock the boat in any way and I would have liked for it to have really stretched the boundaries of what a GBA game is capable of. If you can find this one for a few bucks then I’d say to pick it up for the novelty factor. That said, this is the only reason you would get it as there are numerous games that are simply better than this one in every conceivable way. The Care Bears are not going to become the next Mario or Sonic. Not now….and possibly not ever.

Overall 5/10

The Care Bears Movie Review

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Let me tell you something, you don’t want to mess with the Care Bears. The instant I knew I was going to watch a movie about these guys I knew I was in for a big adventure. Their magical abilities are quite formidable and the only reason they don’t win more fights is due to the genre. These films are for kids and about having fun rather than being big action blockbusters. If they were then this would be a whole different ballgame. The film is good old fashioned fun. I won’t say it’s great or anything but I had a good time with it.

The movie starts with the Cherrywoods telling a story to a bunch of kids. Back in the day there were two kids who were really lonely and they had a rough time of things because they were orphans. So the Care Bears decided to step in and get them to have friends. They took the kids on a tour of their world and helped them learn the true meaning of friendship. The problem is that they didn’t reach a kid named Nicholas in time. This kid ends up meeting a mysterious lady who lives in a book. She quickly begins to trick him into learning the dark arts and generally spreading misfortune into the world. He will now stop the world from caring about anything. Can the Care Bears stop him or is it game over?

The Care Bears have a lot of abilities like powerful lasers and high tech gadgets but they are lacking in confidence. For the most part they don’t want to deal the evil spirit directly. So throughout the film you see the Care Bears running around and panicking. They are definitely not the best allies to have on your side since they don’t really inspire any kind of confidence. At one point the two kids have to fend for themselves as Nicholas chases the around because none of the care bears are really doing anything.

Now granted, the world wasn’t in a very caring mood as the care levels went down but you’d still expect the bears to be able to do something. Instead they take a back seat in their own film for a while there. The movie isn’t too concerned about delivering a great story and it’s more about the vibes so lets talk about those. For starters the animation is pretty good. The hand drawn aspect still works pretty well after all these years. The scenes are very smooth and easy to follow. The action scenes that we do get look pretty good too.

The soundtrack is more of a mixed bag. Some of the songs really don’t work at all while some others are okay. Just don’t go in expecting anything too crazy here. As for the script, it’s fine enough. Everyth8ing can be a bit exaggerated but that works well enough. One character even gets a massive plot twist at the end which shows how he has really changed as a character. That was pretty wholesome all things considered. He really came a long way from when he was a kid.

The more I write about the story the more I have to admit it was a bit all over the place. At the same time that is part of the fun I suppose. This movie isn’t even worried about trying to have a huge narrative or telling a complete story. It’s just messing around and having a good time. I also give it points for not even trying to introduce the various care bears beyond their name. You either get the drift of what’s going on or you don’t. It all comes down to that.

I also appreciated the villain being straight up evil and this wasn’t all some kind of misunderstanding. She wants to achieve her ambitions and has no problems manipulating whoever it takes to complete that. That kind of unfeeling villain works well in the Care Bears as a complete foil to everything that the main characters represent. Her design was good and while it would have been nice to have had an explosive finale, I suppose that’s not really what this movie is all about.

The concept of the Care Bears will pretty much always beat the execution but perhaps one day that can change. In the meantime the important thing is that the film is fun and you’ll have a good time. I do wish they would skip the narration at the beginning though with the story book plot device because it does spoil the ending. I know it’s basically a foregone conclusion that things will go well but at the same time you still don’t have to actively show it like that.

Now will this end up making you a huge fan of the Care Bears themselves? Eh, probably not. They still aren’t super good at their jobs and basically get lucky a lot of the time. Considering the crazy amount of technology and super powers that they have, they should have a better handle on things. It’s another reason why the Ponies are higher since they do generally have solid control over the kingdom. They don’t have to rely on humans to bail them out every time as that would just be plain embarrassing.

Overall, The Care Bears is a good film. I won’t say it’s great or anything like that but by the end you will feel pretty satisfied with your experience. The Key Bear even came in clutch when it counted. The world of the Care Bears may be a deadly one as one town can completely tip the balance of power one way or the other but at the same time it also shows just how much difference one person can make. I don’t think the franchise will ever be at the level of My Little Pony or Strawberry Shortcake going forward since the premise just isn’t quite as hype but if you haven’t watched this movie yet, you should change that.

Overall 6/10