My Friend Peppa Pig is an interactive story game developed by Petoon Studios and published by Outright Games. Based on the globally recognised TV series Peppa Pig, this sandbox game released on October 22, 2021 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and Steam. You play as one of Peppa’s new friends and can customise the look and clothes for your character and then play with Peppa starting at her house with Daddy Pig and her brother George.
The narration and music make it feel like you’re playing inside an episode of the show, and there’s a few things to do in Peppa’s house as the starting point. There’s toys to pick up in Peppa’s bedroom, a parrot you can feed, you can turn on and off the TV in the living room and other such activities. There’s no set storyline, it’s more about finding things to interact with rather than to ‘play’ in a video game sense. For example, Daddy Pig has lost his glasses so you need to search the house for them.
After the effort of searching for the glasses and playing with some toys, Peppa and her friend are tired and turn in for the night. Parents can set a timer within options for how long they can play before sending the characters off to bed (from 5-20 minutes). I think this is fantastic given My Friend Peppa Pig is aimed at younger gamers and this provides them with a reason to take a break themselves, rather than because Mum and Dad said so.
Outside of Peppa’s home, the game world can easily be explored by just running left or right of the screen, riding a bike or driving in the family car. You get to visit places such as Grandma and Grandpa’s house with their veggie patch and chicken coop, you can drive to the beach, the forest, snowy mountains and more. The idea behind the game is the player can create their own unique story and play out adventures with Peppa and her friend.
Each location within My Friend Peppa Pig contains fun mini games to complete such as picking up rubbish in the forest, flying a kite, splashing in muddy puddles, or planting seeds to grow crops that will help feed chickens in the chicken coop. My daughter had no issues with the simple Xbox controller moving with the left stick, jumping with either X or Y, and interacting with A or B. Once activities are completed at these various well-known locations from the TV show, when you go back to Peppa’s house, there will be new items to play with relevant to those activities.
All of the original English voice cast are back for each character to really create an authentic experience. How great is it that we have games like My Friend Peppa Pig where kids can be watching the TV show, then jump straight into a game where they can have fun in this non-violent interactive sandbox within Peppa’s world. This is certainly aimed at those kids who are fans of the TV show with easy navigation and fun puzzles.
This review utilised an Xbox key provided by SwipeRight PR. My Friend Peppa Pig is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and Steam.
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Written by: @ChrisJInglis
