Review: Paw Patrol World (Nintendo Switch)

PAW Patrol World is a 3D adventure game in which the pups must save not only Adventure Bay, but also Jake’s Mountain, the Jungle, and Barkingburg. Using each of the pups’ unique qualities and vehicles, it’s your job to solve puzzles, help citizens, and stop Mayor Humdinger and the Kitten Catastrophe Crew from taking over the PAW Patrol Day festival. Collect pup treats, change your look, decorate your vehicles, find collectables, and find bonus missions along the way.

PAW Patrol World begins with a quick and easy tutorial. You start at the Lookout (the base and home of the pup crew) where Ryder gives you your first mission; help a truck that crashed on a nearby road. Many people have surrounded the truck, and the sweet treats it was carrying for the upcoming festival have fallen out. Ryder first asks you to clear the crowd, which you do with Chase and his megaphone. Next, he asks you to use Rubble and his vehicle to pick up all the spilled sweet treats. This shows you how to change pups and access vehicles, which you then do again to use Skye to lift the truck back on its wheels.

This is pretty much how the game plays throughout its entirety. Although this is a children’s game, and is therefore understandably simple, it does start to feel repetitive after a while—especially because all you do is get the pups to where they need to be. Once you have made it to a mission point, the pups automatically do their job, which you don’t even control; it’s an animation you have to watch and can’t skip. Though these animations only last a second or two, they can become old. In fact, the only thing you do have complete control over is exploring the map, which I believe is the highlight of this game, and why I still enjoyed it.

Being almost 20 years old and in college, it may be a little shocking when I say that I’ve never played a PAW Patrol game before, or even really watched the show. However, after doing some quick and easy research, I found that this is the first open world PAW Patrol game, which can be exciting for those who love the franchise. Even those who know nothing about PAW Patrol can still enjoy this game though, as it has its own story that doesn’t relate to the show, movie, or other games.

PAW Patrol World features four different maps you get to explore, which helps with the repetitiveness of the gameplay; at least there’s always a new place to find, with new citizens and new pup treats to collect. The exploration part of the game is very interactive, as collecting all pup treats requires some fun maneuvers such as jumping on bushes or picnic umbrellas, or using Zuma and his vehicle to float on water. You can also use these pup treats to buy new pup outfits (with more available via paid DLC), postcard stamps, emotes, vehicle stickers and more.

The stamps can be used on postcards to make funny images from what’s already there. For example, you can add funny monkeys to the background, or accessories to whoever’s in the photo. Postcards are found in mail boxes around the maps.

There are a lot of side missions and things to explore, find, and collect in PAW Patrol World, but the main objective is still to stop Mayor Humdinger from taking over the festival. He and his Kitten Catastrophe Crew have stolen signs promoting the festival, and it’s your job to get them back and stop them from stealing the festival for themselves.

While I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone outside of the show’s preschool target demographic, it’s easy to enjoy if you find yourself playing it with a young child in single system co-op.

PAW Patrol World is a very simple adventure game, and one that kids who adore the franchise are bound to enjoy with or without assistance.