Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue - Wii U

The game is great for her.

I bought this as a game for my 4 year old niece to play but it is way too hard for her. Even I couldn't figure out what it wanted me to do in the beginning. On top of that, the gameplay is really boring and lags a lot. I wouldn't recommend.

Background: This game was a gift for my daughter for her 5th birthday. She is just learning her letters and can spell her name, but cannot read. This was the first Wii U game bought specifically for her, but she has played games like Wii Sports Resort,etc. with the family.Right off the bat, let me issue a warning: If you create a new game and then exit before bringing your first puppy back to the center, the game file will become corrupt and will not autosave at all. You have to bring the puppy back to the center and perform its initial treatment, triggering the first autosave point as the dog is placed in a kennel. I learned this the hard way after my daughter lost all of her progress twice. If this happens to you, create a new game over the corrupted slot and you'll be fine.As for gameplay, I noticed a few things that make the game very difficult for younger children. The first flaw becomes obvious the moment the game starts, when you realize you have no idea how to control Barbie on her bike. This information is in the manual, or you can rely on trial and error.Having figured out how to ride the bike, my daughter quickly became frustrated by the hyper-sensitivity of the left stick. The roads in town are curvy and obstacle-ridden, and Barbie is difficult to control. Even worse,the developer decided to implement collision physics, so other bicyclists and pedestrians will knock Barbie off course. Frustrated, my daughter hopped off the bike and ran around town on foot. When she wanted to find her bike again, she opened the map, only to discover that the bicycle icon jumps around as you run toward it!Once you're on the trail of a missing puppy, a compass arrow appears to point you in the right direction. Unfortunately, it's exactly that: a compass arrow. If the puppy is in the southwest part of town, the arrow points southwest, even if there are impassable buildings and obstructions in the way. My daughter got her bike wedged in all kinds of doorways and alleys before we realized you had to stick to the roads to travel around town. A breadcrumb trail would have been so much better.Finally, my last major complaint is that the map has no labels to indicate where the Construction Site, Gardens, Suburbs, etc. are. Even better would have been pictographs (a bulldozer, tree, house, etc.) for pre-readers.Once she got the puppies back to the rescue center, my daughter enjoyed all the mini-games: teaching tricks, playing, grooming, etc. It's just a shame that a few design flaws made the actual rescuing portion of the game more difficult than it had to be for smaller children. Older kids who can read and who are more conversant with video games in general will have an easier time.

Not that good gameSome how boring for kids

My kids are 7, 5 & 4 and they all LOVE this game! it keeps them occupied for hours at a time! and they love being able to buy things for the puppies! Very cute game! I enjoyed playing it with them as well

I haven't played, but my 6 year old can't figure it out. She says she rides her bike around, and finds puppies, but doesn't know what to do with them (where to take them) once found. You'd think for at least the first puppy, they'd highlight a path where to take it, or give a map or something.I'll sit down with her and figure it out, but for a game like this, I'd expect it to really cater to younger kids and give them pathing / directions on where/what to do.EDIT: I sat down with my 6 yr. old this past weekend to help her. This game is trash. The controls are clunky, and although the city looks good and fun, the actual game play lacks. At best, a bargain bin game, but I stand by my 1 star original review. Seems like they could have cleaned up the controls and spent a little more time designing the mini games, and maybe it would have been a 3 star game.

Not only did the game come on time but both of my kids love it. It was age appropriate for both my 5 year old girl and 8 year old boy. Would buy again.

The frame rate is nauseating. I haven't felt sick like this playing a game since the N64. And it's not optimized well at all. You should be able to use the gamepad to play with the puppies or look at the map or do the minigames. Anything really. It's not used at all. Otherwise the actual game itself seems really cute. Too bad they did such a bad job on it.