Barney's Hide and Seek

"Falls well short of being super-dee-duper"

Anyone who grew up in the 90s should be familiar with "Barney & Friends". This show was aimed at very young children, and though it found its fanbase with these kids, it became a very popular target for people who love poking fun at childish TV shows. Due to its popularity among kids, a spin-off platformer called "Barney's Hide and Seek" for the Sega Genesis was created for these very same children. Unfortunately, this game tries a bit too hard to be kid-friendly, and the result is an extremely boring game that probably won't even hold the attention its target audience for more than a half hour. They even went as far as to put the word "game" below the title, as if the "Sega Genesis" label wasn't enough for kids to figure out that this is a video game.

If you're expecting me to excessively poke fun at Barney in this review, you might be a little disappointed. I'm going to be one of the few who actually analyzes this game without giving it a flat-out 1/10 and calling it the worst game ever just because it features everyone's least-favorite purple dinosaur. While this game does stink, it does at least a couple of minor things well.

Graphics and audio

This is one part of the game that doesn't completely fail. The graphics are crisp and colorful, and Barney certainly looks just like Barney. The problem with the visuals is the lack of animation. Barney himself has enough (most of the time), but when kids or animals move, there are usually two or three frames of animation, which isn't enough. After a kid is discovered, he or she will jump into Barney's arms for a hug, but there's no jumping animations; it looks as though the kids magically walk into the air and into Barney's arms. Also, the kids always have the same exact face, and it never changes. It looks far too mechanical.

The music in the game is adequate for a Genesis game. Instrumental versions of several popular children's songs, such as "Old McDonald" and "Row Row Row your Boat" are used in the game, along with the Barney Theme and the closing "I Love You" song that plays in every episode. They actually had Bob West, who played Barney in the TV series, to do Barney's voice for this game, so Barney sounds just like his old self. Barney's voice sounds a bit muffled, but that's to be expected in a Genesis game. The probem with the audio is that Barney just talks too much, and there's no way to stop his mouth from constantly yapping away. Every time you walk by something, Barney has to mention how you can interact with it. If you happen to walk by Baby Bop and any kid while they are hiding (BJ didn't make the cut for this game), Barney will tell you that he sees them. If you happen to walk by a sad-looking bear, he'll tell you: "we can hug the bear!" If you choose to do so, the bear walks away using a whopping two frames of animation. At least they gave it a different face for when it gets hugged, unlike the kids...

Gameplay

This is where the game fails miserably. As stated before, this is a platformer. The objective is to get to the end of the level. Yeah, hide and seek is in this game, but it's only optional. Another optional addition to the game is presents that you can find. Some toy will come out of the present when you find it, and then just fly away. There are four levels with five kids (including Baby Bop) and present to find in each. The only thing you accomplish by finding stuff is the satisfaction of doing so, really. Barney will tell you how much stuff you got at the end of each level, and if you find all 20 kids and all 20 presents, he'll tell you so at the end. They're all incredibly easy to find. As I mentioned before, Barney lets you know whenever he passes by a kid, and that makes it even easier. It doesn't matter too much though, because only half of each kid's body will be concealed. There's zero challenge in finding friends or presents.

All the buttons on the Genesis controller do the same thing, and it varies depending on where Barney is. Yeah, including the start button. You cannot pause the game. Not only can you not pause, but if you leave the game alone for a bit, Barney will do a little dance and then start walking through the entire game himself. This is literally the easiest game ever created. So, if the player needs to take a quick break for some reason, they'll come back only to find that Barney has played through half the game. What were the developers thinking?

If you're standing in the middle of nowhere, Barney will blow a kiss when a button is pressed, and this kiss does nothing. A heart flies up above Barney when he kisses, so if it touches something, it might create a little sparkly effect or something like that, but it's nothing relevant. When Barney is under a platform, he will jump up. If he's near a creature, he'll likely do something to make that creature happy. This can involve hugging sad bears (isn't it a bit weird that this game encourages kids to hug bears?), giving a carrot to a rabbit who can't reach it, and a couple other such scenarios. Barney can also pick up trash and throw it in a nearby trash can. All this stuff never has a significant effect on the gameplay, it's all solely for amusing kids. There are a couple of other gimmicky things in this game and more things you can interact with in the later levels, but there's not much of a reason to mention all of them in this review since they're so insignificant.

There's no way to lose in this game. As if it were easy enough. Barney cannot die or get hurt in any way, which I suppose was partially to please parents who can't stand any remote reference to violence in video games. If you try to plummet Barney off a cliff or into a lake, he'll hold up a stop sign and shout: "Stop! Wait until it's safe!" After waiting for a bit, a smiling log or cloud (yeah, they have faces) will come along to transport Barney to safety. This obviously takes away any possible guilty pleasure.

Replay value is pretty much non-existent in this game. After seeing everything in the game, there's not much reason to play it again due to the lack of challenge and gameplay variety. The only possible reason you'd have for playing through this "game" a second time would be if you didn't find all the kids and presents, and you really aren't missing much there aside from a few extra spoken words from Barney.

Closing thoughts

I'm aware that this game was meant for little kids, but in my opinion it fails even as a kid's game. Had it been a simple, easy, Mario-like platformer, it might have been somewhat acceptable. After a preschooler gets over the excitement that comes from seeing Barney in a video game, they'll likely become bored after playing through it once. Any young kid looking to become acquainted with video games (even Barney fanatics) should avoid this game at all costs and instead settle with something like Super Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog. These games may result in some early frustration for kids, but they're both simple games that can be learned quickly, and will provide a much greater quality and quantity of enjoyment that Barney's Hide and Seek can ever provide.

Pros
- Colorful graphics
- They actually got Bob West to do Barney's voice
- Acceptable music
- It can be completed in 10-15 minutes, ending the boredom quickly

Cons
- It's the easiest game ever, literally
- You can't pause it
- Almost everything you can do is pointless
- Barney talks too much

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/08

Game Release: Barney's Hide and Seek (US, 1993)