Written by Kelly Gray on 5/23/2026 for PC PS5 SW2 SWI XSX

More On: Bluey’s Quest for The Gold Pen

Our friends Bluey and Bingo are at it again, of course with their parents Chili and Bandit at their side in Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen.

Like any item with Bluey's name attached to it, attention is drawn at the sheer mention of the precocious dog's name. So, a new game release available on Switch (as well as PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S)? Yes, please!

I promise you I could not alert my child to this upcoming release because I knew she would be counting down the days until we had it ready to play. And I was right. The moment I said, "Did you see there's a new game on the Switch?" and she casually peeked at the thumbnail; she sqealed with delight. And friends? I knew it. Mom win! And a mom win it truly was. I had no idea what was in store for both of us.

My daughter and I spent hours snuggled up on the couch completing our quests together. We were handing the Switch off back and forth, cheering on victories, complaining about our frustrations, and just simply having fun together. This is the perfect game for that. Non-competitive, simple, silly. It's been a really fun way for us to play together, especially during this cold and rainy spring we're having.

I can expand more about what makes this game so wholesome and family-friendly throughout my review. But first let me say: not only did we have a blast, but she cried when we finished the game. I know—a heart wrenching reality, but a strong indication that it truly was an engaging game for both of us. Don't worry. We have every intention of starting a fresh game over again with no rush to write a review this time around!

Synopsis

Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen revolves around a story being told at the dining room table with the whole Healer family. In the opening video sequence, where Bandit decides in their conversation of make-believe that he's going to play the villain, King Goldie Horns, swiping Bluey's spectacular gold pen, sending her and her sister on a quest to reclaim what is rightfully hers. Through multiple chapters, Bluey and her every faithful sidekick, Bingoose, explore uncharted territory looking for the stolen relic (her gold pen).

These chapters also provide different terrain options, ranging from the desert, to the beach, to the forest, and beyond. However, each chapter has a main "boss" with a specific need. Fortunately, with enough Goose Food, Bingoose can lay an egg specific to resolving that need in order to help the boss and receive passage to the next level. Yes, it is as goofy as it sounds. But I am assuming if you have interest in this game, you have working knowledge of the beloved children's television series. None of this should come as a surprise to you.

Throughout each level there are multiple methods of earning goose food. Answer trivia, collect beads, solve riddles, and play good ol' fashioned puzzle games. Once Bingoose lays her beautiful egg, you're granted access to the portal to the next chapter. You'll be greeted with a new cutscene video with the family introducing you to the concepts found in the next level. Fun!

Eventually, Bluey and Bingoose make their way through multiple chapters to greet their final boss: the very intimidatingly cool and sophisticated King Goldie Horns. As a reminder, this is just Bandit pretending to be a bad guy. A boss battle ensues, with Bluey and Bingoose eventually claiming victory and restoring order to the pen collection.

What I Love

Easily the best part about this game is that it's truly Bluey. From the minor character interactions to the ways the riddles are written and delivered. The entire story hits the mark. With the small cutscene video clips between chapters, it's almost like getting mini episodes within your game.

For a family who has watched every episode and every mini about 2,401 times, through, this was a breath of fresh air for us! Additionally, as you witness within the show, there are Easter eggs for the adults that not only hold our interest in the episode, but also create a beloved experience for us, as well. Many tears have I shed over a silly cartoon dog family. I will say I did not shed a tear. But I did have a few chuckles. It's nice to see that elevated jokes for the adults was not overlooked when creating a more kid-centric game.

The challenges scale slightly throughout the game. Which is nice. Because when you start playing it feels like you're going to get bored very quickly. That's not to say that the game gets incredibly difficult. But difficult enough that it's not always an easy run through.

As an adult, when playing alone, I challenged myself to complete all quests, earn all beads, and rescue all bugs on each level. That increased the difficulty for me quite a bit. That's my tip for any adult who may feel like this game isn't difficult enough for them.

I will flag, however, that if you're an adult who is looking for a more challenging game, this simply isn't the one for you no matter how much you enjoy Bluey. Even the more complicated challenges are still fairly simple. You can run through this game very quickly.

I really enjoyed the modifiers that Bluey got on certain levels. They made her abilities unique. For example, on some levels she wears a jet pack that helps her scale up mountains. Or wings that helped her glide across spaces. Or my daughter's favorite: ice skates that helped her glide across any icy land—and more! These modifiers helped keep each chapter fresh, along with the terrain changes, and added some fun elements to the challenges to increase their difficulty. As I stated previously, when the challenges scale to be slightly more difficult, there's more that require quick changes from one modifier to the other. Dexterity is part of what I'm talking to when I mention a difficulty increase. Nothing too tricky, but enough that it feels like you're really starting to get the hang of these puzzles.

This game is really family friendly. One of the complaints I have is that most of it is text instead of voiceover. But they announced that they are releasing voiceovers from the cast outside of the cutscenes, so hopefully even that will be alleviated.

The language is child-friendly, but still fun and engaging for adults. My daughter could accomplish many of the challenges and had fun figuring them out (she's five). But something that makes this especially family-friendly is that not every challenge needs to be completed.

I alluded to this earlier, but to be clear, you need X number of goose food to get Bingoose to lay an egg. That number varies, though it's usually around eight. There are quite a few ways to earn the goose food. The game is a choose-your-own-adventure means of earning the food. Part of the fun is uncovering new ways of earning it. So, if you get stuck on an especially difficult challenge, move on to the next one. No harm, no fowl. Ha, a little Bingoose pun for you!

There are no "lives." You fall off a cliff? A bubble carries you back to where you were. Yeet yourself off immediately again? Bubble right back. Trust me, my child thought this was hilarious and did it about 700 times in a row and still—no start overs. What a relief to know that progress is never lost, especially in a child's game. No sadness, just continuing forward to try again. Thank you for healing my early Nintendo Aladdin heartbreaks, developers.

The graphics are great. The cutscenes look like they are straight out of the television series. And the chapter games are done in a Bluey's-drawing style. It's an adorable way to show us the inside of Bluey's brain. Her doodles come to life in the stories they are telling around the table.

This also works as an identifying feature, helping us understand the differences between their reality and their make believe. This keeps the story clean and smooth in our brains and helps with clear transitions.

The functionality of the game is smooth with no lag or other issues. The movement between chapters and cutscenes is also relatively quick, with minimal load time. Sound is great. The characters are voiced by their true actors, so there's no weirdness there. All in all, it's exactly what you'd expect as far as quality, if not better.

What I Don't Love

I really wanted to be able to play this as a co-op game with my daughter. Since Bingoose follows Bluey around through most of the chapters, it seemed like an obvious Sonic/Tails option for play. But it's not there. While we were able to pass the Switch back and forth, this game would be a great one to figure out ways to co-op.

I do wish there was a difficulty option. The game truly is geared for younger audiences. Options for difficulty adjustments would make it scalable for older audiences. I know this is a relatively large ask. But knowing how much the Bluey universe transcends age, I know some adults that would enjoy this game if there was a difficult setting.

And finally, since I can, I'm going to put it out there. I'd love to have seen guest appearances from some of our favorite Bluey characters outside of the immediate Healer family. Like Muffin or Indie. They help develop the Bluey universe to a more three-dimensional world. They add color and depth with their unique personalities. With the NPCs around the different worlds, this could have been a fun way to pull in some of the other characters for fun cameos. Definitely not a make-or-break. But I really love Muffin!

That's really all and I had to scrape the barrel for that feedback.

Final Thoughts

I need you to read this review through the lens of a child, because this game is geared towards them. Yes, as a mother I really enjoyed it. But I don't know that I'd keep coming back if it wasn't for the amazing experience I'm having with my daughter. That being said, as a mother, this game has brought me so much joy and fun. We rarely have the opportunity to play games together that we both enjoy and fully understand. This game truly fits the bill. From the bold, bright graphics to the fun engaging storyline, Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen is a family-friendly win. Definitely worth the pick up if you have younger children you want to engage with in a game.

Also, and I don't really know how to say this, but I think as a parent it's worth noting. This game magically didn't make my daughter mad after playing it. When I said screen time was up, she was fine walking away. And there was no post-game slump. Aside from the sadness that came with the game's conclusion, this was a game that didn't cause those issues we all know so well. You know the ones I'm talking about? I'm not sure what magic is that's contained within this game. But I was grateful for it.

All in all, a fun family-friendly and safe-for-kids game. Highly recommend for early audiences, especially when the in-game voiceover is introduced. Because who really needs "Mom! What does this say?" every three minutes when you're trying to write a game review, am I right?

So in closing, I only have one question for you. Who gets to hold the game controller first: you or your kid?

Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen offers everything we know and love about the franchise. With a great storyline and fun challenges, it's great for the whole family to play together in a non-competitive and wholesome way. Highly recommended for younger audiences or families to play together, despite it being single-player only.

About Author

Growing up, I had an older brother and the rules of the house were that you played until your character died, then you hand off your controller. My brother was MUCH better at video games than I was, so I'd die within the first 4 seconds, and he lived on to ACTUALLY find the princess in the correct castle. All of that to say, I finally made it to the other side of gaming. Take THAT, Matt (he's still far better than I am at literally any game ever created).

Tabletop will forever have my heart, though. A D&D player for the past 6 years, I love rolling dice in any TTRPG I can get my hands on. I also love trying out new strategy games and attending conventions to see them in play.