{"id":15308,"date":"2016-08-17T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T00:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=15308"},"modified":"2016-07-27T05:40:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T05:40:18","slug":"buddy-me-dream-edition-wii-u","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/17\/buddy-me-dream-edition-wii-u\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddy & Me: Dream Edition (Wii U)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BUDDY_BOX\"<\/a>What if whenever you go to sleep, you could dream about playing with your best friend, who happens to be a big, furry, yellow floppy-eared smiley dragon thing named Buddy.\u00a0 Well that\u2019s the premise behind Buddy & Me, a new downloadable game for Wii U.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s so different about the \u201cDream Edition\u201d in the title, but I imagine at one point this was a mobile game.\u00a0 It may be yet another continuous running 2-D platformer, but it\u2019s certainly the most charming one I\u2019ve ever played, as it combines the appeal of Dr. Seuss-like characters with a bit of My Neighbor Totoro for good measure.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you start the game, you play as either a boy or a girl, who is sleeping in his or her bedroom.\u00a0 Pick the \u201cdream\u201d option from the title screen and Buddy will appear at the window and you\u2019ll dream about playing with him!\u00a0 You\u2019ll run outside your bedroom into a forest and jog along as Buddy flies in the background. You can jump and double jump with the A button, and hold the A button down after your second hop to glide down slowly.\u00a0 You have two minutes to run as far as you can before waking up, although you can pick up items to increase the time.\u00a0 And that\u2019s all you need to know!<\/span><\/p>\n

As you run, you\u2019ll pick up all sorts of goodies that\u2019ll help boost your score among other things.\u00a0 There are items that\u2019ll increase your time, make you dash faster for a short while, or double the stars you collect.\u00a0 Every so often you may nab a flying rabbit creature. \u00a0They will add five seconds to your clock if you reach a certain point, and they\u2019ll also catch you if you fall off an edge.\u00a0 But the thing you\u2019ll collect most are stars.\u00a0 These act as your currency when buying upgrades and things in the main menu.\u00a0 But while playing, collecting stars will also fill up a meter, and when it\u2019s full, Buddy will pick you up and fly you above the clouds for a short bonus stage where you can collect more stars!\u00a0 But if you fall off an edge, the star meter will reset, and that\u2019s the only way you are penalized in this game.\u00a0 Sometimes Buddy will help you out in other ways as you run, like letting you swing on his tail or bounce on his belly to reach higher places.<\/span><\/p>\n

When your time is up, your score is tallied and you can either dream again, or wake up.\u00a0 If you wake up, you can go to the extras menu and spend the stars you\u2019ve collected on upgrades and other goodies.\u00a0 You can buy new outfits for your boy and girl characters, concept art, or purchase upgrades for your next run.\u00a0 I recommend buying that option right away because the upgrades can be really handy.\u00a0 You can choose to have extra time, run faster, or have a star magnet to draw stars close to you.\u00a0 You can also buy new seasons to play in.\u00a0 Supposedly, new seasons in the forest have different challenges, but since the levels are randomly generated anyway, I really didn\u2019t notice.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Really the only problem I had with this game is that it\u2019s yet another continuously running 2-D platformer, and we have enough of those as it is.\u00a0 I would\u2019ve absolutely loved this game if it was just a regular 2-D game, like a Mario title.\u00a0 Also, you can only glide after your second jump, so you don\u2019t have quite as much control over where you land as what I\u2019d like.\u00a0 And after you buy all the items and upgrades, there really isn\u2019t much left to do in the game besides trying to beat your high score.\u00a0 I wish they could\u2019ve added some extra modes, like a two-player simultaneous run, or a parent mode where the kid plays as the boy or girl, and the parent can play as Buddy to help the young child along if he or she has trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

But like I said, even though it\u2019s just another continuous runner, it\u2019s the most charming and best-looking one I\u2019ve ever played.\u00a0 The graphics are spectacular.\u00a0 The backgrounds look like something out of a masterfully crafted hand-painted Caldecott award-winning children\u2019s book.\u00a0 And the animated characters look like something out of a heartwarming Nick Jr. cartoon.\u00a0 It\u2019s just so adorable and happy, and we need more games like that in this world. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"BUDDY_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing violent or objectionable here.\u00a0 If you fall off the edge, one of your flying bunny pals will pull you back up to safety.\u00a0 The only sad part of the game is when you choose to wake up after a run, Buddy has such a disappointed look on his face!\u00a0 Awww!\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for the text in the menus, but not needed to play since it\u2019s pretty easy to figure out.\u00a0 Some kids might be bored with it after a while, but it\u2019s still a very happy and heartwarming experience. Buddy & Me: Dream Edition is rated E for Everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if whenever you go to sleep, you could dream about playing with your best friend, who happens to be a big, furry, yellow floppy-eared smiley dragon thing named Buddy.\u00a0 Well that\u2019s the premise behind Buddy & Me, a new downloadable game for Wii U.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s so different about the \u201cDream Edition\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15310,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15308\/revisions\/15310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}