Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue (Wii U) Review

Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue starts off wonderfully. When starting the game, the player is met by a short cut-scene with Skipper capturing a video for her blog, "advertising" their puppy rescue service. It is adorable and shows the personality of the famous dolls in a remarkable yet simple way.

When the game finally starts off, the player takes the role of Barbie, who gets a phone message about a lost puppy she has to rescue. She then takes off on her bike to travel around the town looking for said puppy, being controlled by the player.

So far everything seems fine. The city, while very linear and limited, looks good and has much detail to it and its locations, and it feels like a natural city, making the game feel alive. Barbie then finds and brings the puppy back to their shelter to get it groomed and ready to meet its owner. It sure sounds like fun and a fine game to play to kill some time.

However, pretty soon, the two biggest weaknesses of Puppy Rescue start to kick in. The first one is that it has a structure like some Facebook games, in that it takes time to "let the puppies rest" in between grooming activities. This would be fine if this was a phone or Facebook game, which players play while idling, but this is a console game, and very few people enjoy being idle when playing those.

The second mistake is that the game is extremely repetitive. The cycle is almost always the same: go out and rescue puppies, name the puppies, groom the puppies by doing mini games (that play out very similarly), give the puppies to their owners. It grows boring very quickly if played like a console title, yet again showing a misunderstanding about the need this platform is meant to fulfil. A console game isn't a "five minute when waiting for the bus" experience; it is a "sit for hours" one.

These two design flaws kill off what could have otherwise been a fun puppy shelter simulator starring the ever-popular doll and her sisters, and make it into a subpar experience that grows boring and repetitive if played for extended periods of time.