Before I go hands-on with a handful of Apple Arcade games that are getting a month-long infusion of Bluey, those in attendance at this showcase are given a brief introduction by a representative for the company. In it, they talk about how the service is fantastic for children, as every game that’s included in the subscription is devoid of ads and in-app purchases. Behind the rep is a mural of all the different child-friendly characters currently featured across the hundreds of titles available to play such as Sonic the Hedgehog and SpongeBob SquarePants
As I make my way from station to station, I overhear other attendees, some of whom have brought their own children along to see their favorite blue dog featured in Apple Arcade games such as Crossy Road Castle and Disney Coloring World+. On more than one occasion, I hear a parent state that Apple Arcade is the only gaming they allow their child to engage with, expressly because of its lack of in-app purchases and ads.
Apple Arcade has never exclusively been advertised as a child-first platform in its nearly seven years of existence. However, it seems that the subscription might naturally be donning that mantle regardless. While this showcase’s primary goal is to highlight the select few experiences that are doing a Bluey crossover, which starts rolling out Thursday May 21 for a limited time, there are other family-friendly games available to play as well, including Sneaky Sasquatch, which can almost always be found in the top 10 of the service’s most popular titles.
The games featuring Bluey run the gamut of genres. There’s Crossy Road Castle, a platformer that takes you through the animated dog’s house. Puzzle games stitch. and puffies. feature interactive embroidery and sticker sheets, respectively, with the latter unfurling the plot points of specific Bluey episodes as players place puffy stickers in the right order. Disney Coloring World+ is a digital coloring book, allowing kids to shade the cartoon dog in any color they want, including a variety of hues of his namesake. And Suika Game+, Apple Arcade’s version of the fruit-based match game that blew up a few years ago, will feature Bluey-themed backgrounds as players strategically drop various fruits.
