Game: PJ MASKS: HEROES OF THE NIGHT
Genre: Adventure, Action, Platformer
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows), PS4, Xbox & Stadia)
Developers | Publishers: Petoons Studio | Outright Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $39.99 | UK £34.99 | EU € 39,99
Release Date: October 28th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Swipe Right PR.
PJ MASKS: HEROES OF THE NIGHT is based on a popular pre-school children’s TV program. PJ Masks are a titular superhero team consisting of Amaya, Greg, and Connor. They become the superhero team PJ Masks (known as “PJs” for short) when night falls to fight enemies and rivals such as Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and more.
The PJ’s
Connor becomes Catboy, Amaya is Owlette and last, but not least, is Greg, who becomes Gekko. All three PJ’s have their unique superpowers. In this particular game, the PJ’s are on a quest to stop Romeo, Luna Girl and Night Ninja from taking over the world. So get your PJs on and use their superpowers, like Catboy’s speed, Owlette’s flying, and Gekko’s muscles, to stop the night-time baddies.
The story in the game is very thin, virtually non-existent but I’m sure that the age group the game is aimed at will find it fun. It’s a typical story of chasing the bad guy or girl and putting the world to rights over stolen homework.
Explore Eight Locations
They can explore eight famous PJ Masks locations throughout the game, including Mission Control HQ, Mystery Mountain, and the Moon. PJ Masks: Heroes of the Night features a mixture of side-scrolling gameplay. Your little one will be driving, climbing, flying and gliding to make sure they never get bored. But, can they find all the secret PJ Masks collectables? There are three PJ’s amulets to find on each level and 200 gems to collect as well.
Each of the PJ’s has their SuperPowers. Owlette can fly and has super vision allowing her to see through the buildings to track the baddies down. Gekko can stick to walls in the same way as his reptile namesake can cling to walls. Gekko can also become invisible, allowing him to sneak past the baddies. Catboy, as his name suggests, has Cat Special powers. Catboy is incredibly fast, agile, and with super cat ears to hear the quietest sounds across unbelievable distances!
All Three PJ’s are Playable
Even though the PJ’s are kids, they all have the use of their own vehicle’s, mustn’t be illegal to drive underage where they live? Anyway, Catboy has his cat-car, which travels fast. The Gekko -Mobile can swim, keeping Gekko dry underwater. And Owlette has the Owl Glider, you guessed it, it allows her to fly.
On each level in the game, all three PJ’s are playable. They swap in and out as the levels are being played, usually when one of their superpowers are needed to progress. There isn’t any fighting in the game, just a skirmish at the end of the level between the good guys and the baddies. But even then, all your little one has to do is press a button to correspond with the prompts on the screen.
Children’s Game
Since PJ Masks is primarily a child’s game, the game does have a lot of hand-holding; various button prompts pop up on the screen. There is also an abundance of patting on the back going on in the game, meaning that nearly every time a move is completed successfully or a collectable is found, you’re told: “Well done”. While it is grating for an adult to read it continuously, the whole point of the game is that it’s a child’s video game.
The hand-holding, prompts and praise is all encouragement for the child that is playing the game. A game whose cast of three friends encourage one other and work together; sometimes they mess up or fail, but they keep trying!
Even though PJ Masks is aimed at pre-school age children, I had a lot of fun playing the game. Not sure what that says about my mentality, but I found my inner child and enjoyed the game until the closing credits.
The game’s controls are very responsive, and a pre-schooler should not have any difficulties controlling the PJ’s. All the characters are fully voiced, any child will love to hear their favourite PJ speak, whereas I found it more fitting to turn the volume control off on my Switch. But then, I’m not a pre-schooler and it’s been a long long time since I was.
Conclusion
Is your child is a fan of the animated TV series and are you looking for a first video game to introduce them to gaming? Then PJ Masks: Heroes of the Night would be one I would recommend. I have seven grandchildren and one of them is a keen watcher of PJ’s Masks TV series, he would be delighted to be able to play the game.
With its mix of platforming, driving, and the PJ’s superpower youngsters will have heaps of fun and save the day, or as the PJ’s themselves say “PJ Masks all shout hooray, cause in the night, we saved the day”!
Final Verdict: I Like It 