Every game deserves to be played, right? Real talk – this is a game I had as a kid that I don’t think I ever beat. I thought it would be interesting to look back and see why the credits were so elusive to 4-year-old me. Part of the Play Every Pixel journey is about letting yourself explore games you’d normally never touch. Even the games made for toddlers, because that curiosity is what keeps gaming fun.
A Platformer Built for First-Time Players
Quite honestly, the gameplay loop of this game is mind-numbingly easy for an adult. For a child? I think this game is perfect for them. I would equate this to Super Mario to some extent, just with less risk and less reward. Think of it like “Baby’s first platformer” or something with training wheels. As adults, it’s easy to see how easy this game would be. As a child, it could be the difference of enjoying the genre or possibly dropping video games forever.
Dora the Explorer: The Search for Pirate Pig’s Treasure is vastly repetitive. Again, great for a child learning the basics of the genre, or even for a person who wants a palette cleanser in between harrowing games, but not so great for someone who is a veteran to the genre. Even though this game only took me about an hour to beat, I did find myself wanting more out of this playthrough. Something to pop out and explain why I struggled so much as a kid, something more than just being bad at games. If you asked me twenty years ago my thoughts on this game, I could see myself talking about it like it’s Celeste or Super Meat Boy. The pacing of this game is great for a child learning the ropes. Thankfully, there’s not really anything to follow throughout the entire playthrough? Story? Sure, the semblance of one. Collectibles? Only if you really want to. Character arcs and development? This is a Dora the Explorer game I’m talking about here. The hardest thing you have to do is go from left to right.
Throughout playing this game, one of my main thoughts was “How do I explain this to my fiancee if she walks in?” with a close second being, “Jeez, this game feels like it was made for a kid.” It did feel a tad strange jumping into this game knowing fully well that I am nowhere close to the target demographic in the slightest. The game was extremely easy to run through, a game where I don’t think I needed a single neuron to fire. However, as a young child, I struggled with this game so much. While I now have over three hundred games beaten at this point in my life, I had nowhere close to that in the early 2000’s. Hell, I’d be surprised if I had even beat five at that point. I think the difficulty of these licensed games are foundational to learning a genre. Or feel free to drop a child into a game like Celeste, who am I to stop you?
A Simple Adventure in Dora’s World
I can’t remember much about Dora the Explorer from my childhood, but I’ll try my best to gather what I can from my memory.
From what I can remember, this game has the same charm that the children’s show does, just in a more pixelated flavor. Despite the initial charm, that charm is contained to each area or zone. I would honestly compare this to the different worlds in the Super Mario games. Just in this case, the aesthetics of each world is translated to a single zone in The Search for Pirate Pig’s Treasure. Due to this choice, it causes the game to be quite linear, which is great because that’s what it is. Thankfully, because the main demographic are children and toddlers who I doubt are willing to have a conversation about the linearity of a video game, I don’t think they would notice or care about the lack of variety found here.
Let’s take a quick pivot to the title – Dora the Explorer: The Search for Pirate Pig’s Treasure. That title is a bit misleading as there isn’t really a search at all. Since the levels are extremely linear, the goal is to really just get to the end of each level. There are collectibles you can find here and there, such as coins to earn stars throughout, getting them practically does nothing rewarding towards the end.
Captured Cartoon Charm
While this is a licensed game, I felt like the graphics are decent. I probably didn’t notice or care as a kid, but I honestly don’t have any complaints now as I write this. I think that the graphics really encapsulate those early licensed games, allowing us to see the evolution almost preserved in time. This game gives me GBA Video graphics vibes, which is charming on its own, which helps it be pretty faithful to the cartoon.
The music loops are a different story entirely. They were good for maybe the first loop, then had to be turned off for the following hour of loops. Again, I’m sure a child wouldn’t notice this aspect too much, but it would have been amazing for the developers to put more love into it.
Why Revisiting Childhood Games Matters
I’m honestly happy that I went back to play this game from my childhood. It helped put into perspective that even though I think that I’m pretty good at video games these days, I can relive my childhood memories of being horrible at them. While Dora the Explorer: The Search for Pirate Pig’s Treasure will probably be a cultural heavy hitter, it can be refreshing to see the stepping stones one may take to get to that point. If anyone is thinking about going back to play games they loved as a child, I think that it’s worth it to take that plunge. Maybe you’ll rediscover old favorites or why you fell in love with a certain genre in the first place.
Play Every Pixel 