Care Bears: Care Quest - In Defense of Mediocirty

03/09/25

One way that The Game Boy Abyss has broken me down is the fact that if I’m playing something that doesn’t quite fit into one of the following criteria, it’s probably not going to be very good.

A. A first-party Nintendo game,

B. A Well-known, cult classic or had re-releases down the line or,

C. Has some element that is incredibly unique and unlike anything else on the console. Of course, I’ve been surprised before, but I’ve found generally if a game doesn’t land in one of those three categories it’s going to be either bad, forgettable, or an unholy combo of both. I’ve been wrong before, though. All this is to say, I didn’t expect to like Care Bears: Care Quest, and I was right - I don’t. But for what was probably a throwaway, shovelware minigame collection of a game made to fill a quota to market towards the burgeoning demographic of ‘young girls’... I don’t think the game is that bad in a vacuum. For a thirty year old nerd like me? It’s not great. For a little kid, maybe playing one of their first games, ever, in 2005? Y’know, maybe there is something to this whole thing.

As I’ve tried to underline in previous reviews, some games just aren’t tailored towards me. And that’s okay! Demographics do matter, after all. Now, imagine me - an almost thirty year old who plays way too many video games and has far too much investment in pro wrestling - do you think I’m really that much of a Care Bears fan? But the fact is, whilst my subjective opinion is core to this entire website, I want to also explore the fact that whilst I might play a game tailored to a demographic opposite to me, I want to look past my issues and inherent biases, and simply try and experience these games from a somewhat neutral point of view - whilst of course, not ignoring it’s genuine faults. Care Bears: The Care Quest is a game tailored towards the youngest demographic gaming can reach, and whilst this game is a basic, simple, relatively repetitive mini-game collection… for the kind of kids that would’ve been playing a Care Bear game in 2005, I really don’t think it’s *that* bad.

A Varied Simplicity

As I said, Care Bears: The Care Quest is a minigame-collection of twelve different minigames, each featuring a different member of the Care Bear family engaging in some caring, loving task for the good of ol’ Care Bear kind. Whilst I’d be remiss in describing any of the minigames as *complex* In any substantial way, there is a surprising amount of variety on display here. Some of the games will have you partaking in some basic platforming, another is just a straight up game of tennis (were they running out of ideas?). There’s memory games to beef up your brain (I sure need it) and some basic ‘match the toy to the Care Bear that wants it’ action going on. We’re not inventing new genres here, but I feel we could be doing a lot worse. Considering how basic they are, it’s not really much to say that they all control fine, but after some of the garbage I’ve encountered, just seeing that each Bear’s respective minigame controls snappily enough, without any real sense of lag or jankyness makes me plenty happy.

None of it is particularly complex, but for the most part they function as well as you can hope; they’re not uniformly interesting, but even the most boring amongst the bunch - namely, the toy matching and tennis ones - didn’t put me to sleep the way something like Bratz did. Which isn't saying much, I realise. God, Bratz is bad. But I digress; My personal favourite levels were the ones that take on almost a Lemmings-esque vibe, protecting the Care Bears and their friends from slipping on trash or plummeting down through the clouds. It was the perfect combination of an actually interesting premise for a minigame, and requiring a smidge of skill in efficiently completing each of the mini-stages that make up each game. If the rest of the games, which are markedly simpler, were up to snuff with this one, I’d be able to sing the game’s praises on its own merits just a little bit easier.

There’s no real connective tissue, no story, between the various minigames - this is just an old-school minigame collection with the option of playing for highscores. As you’d expect, you’re not going to be pulling a ton of playtime out of this; assuming you’re not failing these minigames (and if you’re old enough to be reading a passion project about GBA games I hope you’re not) I doubt you’ll take longer than 40-odd minutes to see everything, but I’ve seen more established IPs get less - lookin’ at you, Muppets: On With the Show! But going back to the game’s only real level of replay value - the highscores.

Oddly enough, scores aren't based on how well you actually do in the core minigame, but on the amount of stars you pick up whilst you’re focussing on whatever goal the minigame dictates. And it’s not like they’re hard to earn or anything; the stars will just be hanging about, waiting for you to grab them. If, for whatever reason, you’re a kind of freak who wants to max out your score on Care Quest for… some reason beyond my fathoming, collecting the stars does add a touch of time management to the minigames, since you need to be on top of the task at hand whilst also juggling collecting stars. Does it add much to the game? No, not really, but it’s an extra wrinkle in an admittedly incredibly simplistic game. I do also think it’s delightfully fun that rather than typing in a name or initials for the high score, you just pick your favourite Care Bear to represent them. Just a shame that didn’t have the newest Care Bear on the block.

That’s my OC, Game Bear, do not steal.

Whilst there is a decent amount of variety going on, the biggest thing that hampered any enjoyment I might’ve gotten out of this game was the fact that it’s just kind of boring. Even if I hadn’t played a *lot* of games in my life, everything in this game is just a derivative of something we’ve all seen a thousand times. Tennis. Memory match. Not-Lemmings. Considering how I’ve played some real derivative games, Care Quest does stand above those, but still. There’s only so much attention I can hold for a memory match in this day and age. I also kind of hate tennis, but that’s a whole different story.

In Defense Of Shovelware

But again, this is a game made for the youngest gamers who can actually play a game by themself. Coupled with the fact it’s clearly a game marketed towards young girls - seen back in 2005 as barely being able to understand gaming at all by the corporate masses - the game is made to be as simplistic and easy as possible. Much like something like Gumby that I played a few years back, I genuinely don’t think picking this game out for your five-year old kid to ease them into gaming wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world - it’s not a ‘hit buttons randomly and win’ toy of a game, but it’s easy enough any kid determined to actually engage with it can succeed. Care Bears: Care Quest has a mission statement - for the kids, and

For a cheap, shovelware-tier ‘girl game’ (not pejorative), I think the game is kind of cute looking. Whilst I’m no fan of the Care Bears themselves, the bright colours of the GBA capture their polychromatic charms wonderfully. Also, shout out to the little star dudes strutting their stuff, big, big fan. It’s a generally simplistic looking game, with lots of very soft, somewhat blurry or underbaked visuals, but it’s never bad. Also the sun is adorable. On the other hand, the music, whilst not godawful, is fairly generic and forgettable, but what’s more of an issue is the awful quality of the sound. It just sort of constantly buzzes in your head and is just overall kind of annoying, and in the end kind of just loops and loops and I just found myself playing the game on mute (plus, I was watching something on TV at the time, so that helps). The audiovisual experience isn’t any better than I expected, but it’s certainly not any worse. Really, it is what it is.

This has been a bit of a weird and rambly kind of review - mostly since it’s a game that’s difficult to go into detail with. But overall, whilst I didn’t come away from Care Quest with that much care for the game nor the property, I have to admit that the overall quality of the game isn’t atrocious. It functions, it has variety, and it seems to be a decent representation of the IP it’s adapting. If a four year old *really* wanted to play a GBA game twenty years ago, there could be waaaay worse games to hand them than Care Bears: Care Quest. To myself, and the people reading this, there really is no reasonable point to playing this in the year of 2025, but sometimes, I enjoy looking at the quality of the game that was, not the game as it is. I dunno if that makes sense, but I don’t know if I ever make sense. Care Bears is fine - I just doubt I’ll ever be thinking about this game again a week from now.

Thanks for reading my review of Care Bears: Care Quest. Nice and easy one this week, which is appreciated considering the monster Pokemon Odyssey review I threw up here last week! I’m also planning to do a lot of revamping of the website, giving a bit more of a cleaner format for the reviews, but I don’t plan to cut away from the game’s old-school charm! As always, you can find me on BlueSky or Twitch under GameBoyAbyss, and email me at mgeorge7003@hotmail.com or cckaiju@gmail.com. Thanks again for reading, and I’ll see you next week as we take a look at a game literally 22 years in the making!