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Toem and its sequel are photography games that involve a character going on road trips while taking photos of notable things, often bringing joy to people by doing so along the way. They’re indie darlings and quite charming. Bluey, by its very nature, is also a quite charming show, and the new Happy Snaps game sees the two Australian Cattle Dog puppies getting a camera of their own and taking photos of the world around them to ideally bring joy. While the Something We Made games are of course more involved and mechanically interesting than this Gameloft title, it sort of feels like this latest Bluey adventure is taking that same approach to entertain kids while getting them accustomed to staple gameplay mechanics.
Bluey’s Happy Snaps begins with Bluey and Bingo knocking a camera out of a box in storage before they’re about to head to the park for an outing with friends with Bandit and Chili. This catches their dad’s attention, and he spends the ferry ride there working on it. By the time the family arrives, it’s fixed, and the siblings now get a new adventure. Fill up a photo book with things they see.
While Bluey’s Happy Snaps features its own sort-of story tied to Bluey and Bingo finding and using the camera Bandit fixed for them, it also constantly calls back to plots of episodes. For example, the first park area references a number of season one shorts like “Shadowlands” and “Spy Game.” It’s an effective tool as it helps provide some framework for younger players who might be playing their first game understand what they should be doing due to recreating events from the show. Plus, it’s a fun aside for people familiar with the series who are paying attention.
I mentioned before that Bluey’s Happy Snaps sort of feels like a means of making a Toem style adventure where players can search for certain photo subjects to take pictures for rewards, needing to get a certain amount before being able to unlock and move on to the next area. While Toem 1 and 2are far more narrative-heavy games with real investigation, light platforming, and even some investigative tasks assigned by quest-giving NPCs to earn stamps to go to the next spot, Bluey’s Happy Snaps is far more relaxed. Getting to an area nets you hints about all the photo ops around. These are diminutive and greyed out. You need to get a minimum amount of photos to move on. Each photograph nets you a sticker you can use, as well as sometimes customization elements or coloring pages. While there will be some small “event” scenarios, designated with stars over characters from the series in spots, these are brief excursions and not really taxing quests. It’s lighter fare designed to perhaps get small children accustomed to the quest-based structure found in heavier games.
The simplicity is key, as Bluey’s Happy Snaps doesn’t feel too easy, like it is talking down to the kids, or holds their hands. There’s opportunities for kids to work it out on their own. But there is care to ensure there are visual cues for younger players who might not have as much reading experience under their belt, some starter quest-style mechanics are implemented, and there’s a steady cause-and-effect approach both with the rewards offered and some shots that involve hitting a trigger then getting into a position to set up certain photos.
Since Bluey’s Happy Snaps does involve a Toem approach to careful observation and inferring next steps based on visual hints and cues, I feel like it also ends up offering a little challenge too. Granted that’s more for young kids, but it means if an older child or adult is playing with them, they might need to think a bit too. Using the “Spy Game” situation as a reference, one of the photo hints references the kids “controlling” the adults, which means someone picking up on the context clues and with an awareness of the show would see what should happen to complete that objective.
I know I’m referencing that situation a lot, mainly because it’s easy to cite and means I’m not bringing up a lot of spoilers, but that situation highlighted an issue I encountered when I played. Sometimes, bugs regarding progression came up in Bluey’s Happy Snaps. One of the first was tied to that device Bluey, Bingo, Chloe, and Honey are creating to control the parents. But the on-screen text and events happening didn’t match the voice clips from the episodes with the kids arguing about job swapping. It was a little weird. If it’s intentional, I think it could confuse kids. If not, well, then I hope it gets fixed. That did happen a few other times with those sorts of events, so I’m curious if it was on purpose.
While that’s the only real bug I encountered, there’s one other thing about Bluey’s Happy Snaps that oddly bothered me. The characters don’t look at each other when they’re talking to each other. The 2D character models stare straight ahead in every situation, with no exceptions. When I did some research and looked into Bluey: The Videogame, that didn’t seem to happen there. During story segments when characters might be talking to each other, the trailers and videos suggested eyes would move. It’s a shame! I found it distracting too.
There are definitely things to appreciate about Bluey’s Happy Snaps, like how it takes the Toem approach to a photography game and doesn’t talk down to the player. It references the show in ways that would help kids understand objectives. It doesn’t hold their hand when it comes to finding the subjects to photograph. The tasks feel like they might be helping to prepare kids for more challenging games. I do think some design choices, like characters’ eyes not moving and the handling for some event segments, aren’t the best. But this does feel like it could be one of the “good” games to pick up for a younger child.
Bluey’s Happy Snaps will come to the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 15, 2026.
