Based on the Unlock the Magic series, Care Bears To the Rescue is a 1-4 player, 2.5D platform title with shoot ’em up stages and mini games; having released on the Switch and Steam in late 2024, it’s now arrived on current Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

The story of Care Bears To the Rescue sees the naughty Bluster tinkering with creating big bad seeds, and accidentally sending one into the Silver Lining. This infects the world with bad energy, corrupting flowers and creatures across the five different areas around the Silver Lining. The Care Bears set out to save their world, by using a Heart Cannon in each of the realms to destroy the big bad seed once and for all.

Care Bears To the Rescue is an incredibly charming experience, with gorgeous, vibrantly colourful visuals and bouncy music; with the ability for up to four players to play simultaneously, and a fairly forgiving approach to failure in multiplayer, it’s a great game for younger players to tackle alongside their older siblings or parents. The platform levels are well designed, with the controls being simple and responsive. Players use their ‘Belly Badge Power’ to overcome obstacles, defeat enemies and to create new platforms, but they can also jump and grab onto ropes with just a few more buttons.

There’s good variation in the platform levels too, though just one piece of music per world means you’ll be hearing the same tracks a lot. The music for the final secret world is a banger though!

The shoot ’em up stages that conclude each world add a bit of variety to proceedings, as do the mini games which immediately follow the sideways scrolling shooter levels.

The shoot ’em up stages do feel a bit samey, however, and the mini games aren’t always particularly polished or enjoyable, but they’re short enough and do provide a diversion from the main platforming action.

Of course, the bulk of the game takes place as a platform game, and while the first half of the game is an almost cosy, chilled out and straightforward experience, the latter half gets surprisingly challenging, from the icy world onwards.

It won’t prove too challenging for platforming veterans, but does still put up a decent fight, and there’s some particularly tricky timing based obstacles to deal with in the secret final world.

There’s three stickers to find in each level (each of which can be viewed, along with extra information, on the main menu screen), a selection of playable characters who each have unique abilities and even unlockable characters to discover too; there’s a decent amount of content in Care Bears To the Rescue, and it’s all very nicely put together.

It’s a great game for younger fans, though it’s likely to prove quite frustrating for them towards the end, which means that playing cooperatively with an older family member is advisable.

Overall, Care Bears To the Rescue is an appealingly colourful and well designed game, which doesn’t outstay its welcome.

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