Review — PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels

The PAW Patrol returns to actions and this time they take their Rescue Wheels to the track in PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels Championship.

While this is the latest PAW Patrol game, it isn’t the first time our favorite pups hit the race track as Rescue Wheels Championship is actually the follow-up to 2022’s PAW Patrol: Grand Prix, a racing game that took clear inspirations from kart racers such as Mario Kart or Sonic Racing. Which means we all know the drill: short races, power-ups, drifting and jumping, but then more accessible for younger children. This new game builds on the same formula, but this time we get to race with their monster truck Rescue Wheels.

Keep on Truckin’

As you drop into the game, you’ll be immediately treated to a tutorial that quickly explains how to properly drive your truck. Don’t expect anything overly complex of course, as this game is mainly targeted as little children. But Rescue Wheels Championship does add something new to the mix, namely tricks. You’ll be able to pull off wheelies, side wheelies and flips, filling up a gauge and once full, you can unleash your racer’s ultimate move giving you a speed boost. A funny side effect however, is that the cars are constantly pulling off (side) wheelies and watching this as they do these moves in near harmony is just utterly weird. The benefits from all those tricks are also rather minimal as the small speed boost rarely makes any difference. While I understand that the developers might have thought that pulling off wheelies with these trucks would be a good idea, I think the game would have been better off without.

Another addition to the game is the Arena mode, where you try to collect as many pup treats as possible within a certain time limit. Bumping into another racer or hitting them with a power-up makes them drop a few cookies and however has the most at the end of the round is the winner. It’s a fun mode for when you’re tired of conventional races, but sadly there’s only three arena maps in the game. In terms of conventional tracks, the game offers a nice selection of twelve tracks in various environments, but this is also rather on the light side. When it comes to the racers, you of course have the core squad, with Roxy, Boomer and Major Humdinger as additional characters.

PAW Patrol Is Ready to Roll

In terms of game modes, you have the classic Quick Play, allowing you to quickly play a race or an arena against the CPU or with an additional player in split screen. Next, there’s a Cup mode, allowing you to complete three different cups each consisting of four races. Finally, there’s the Rescue Wheels Championship mode. In this mode, you work your way through all the race and arena tracks, while also being treated to some story elements that gives this mode an extra bit of meat. Through this mode, you’ll unlock three of the playable characters. Aside from these characters, you’ll also be able to unlock various skins, wheels, turbo colors and stickers to customize your vehicles by collecting pup treats.

While the game might seem a bit light on content and the price is a tad too high, it does offer a good selection of varied tracks, racers and modes for kids who just want to have some fun with one of their favorite franchises. The game does stay pretty true to the television series, which means they’ll feel right at home. One thing in the presentation that might come as an annoyance, are the constant catch phrases you’ll hear throughout the game. This is also a bit in line with the show, but it’s a bit exaggerated here, especially when you’ll here Marshall cry “This is so much fun” for the umptieth time. Graphically, it’s obviously not the strongest game out there, but the visuals are clear and colorful, ideal for children. As an adult, you will probably notice the occasional low-res texture however.

Lastly, but most importantly, is of course how the game plays. Luckily, the game scores some points here as the handling is is really great. Driving feels very smooth and is far superior to Hot Wheels Let’s Race: Ultimate Speed for example, another racing game that was recently released and who’s main audience is younger kids. The speed is lower than this title, which might be less appealing for an older audience, but this actually makes it more suitable for the young ones. If driving is still a bit too hard for them, you can also enable two assists: autodrive and autostunt, allowing even the most inexperienced kids to enjoy this game. And of course, there’s a plentitude of languages to chose from, so your kids will be able to enjoy the game in his own language. So while there are better alternatives out there, most notably Mario Kart for example, PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels proves to be a fun racing game for children age 4 to 6.

Reviewed on PlayStation 5.
Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.