Finding Teddy 2

Finding Teddy was a mobile game released in October 2013, later released for the PC in December of that year. It was generally well received and while the game was very simplistic designed with kids in mind – it was no less a fun, quirky little point-and-click game. Its sequel, Finding Teddy 2, on the other hand, has taken an entirely different route with its gameplay, keeping the pixel art-esque style of graphics, but abandoning the point-and-click aspects for Metroidvania-style gameplay with a little bit of Legend of Zelda mixed in. Between sequels, changes are expected to happen. Even if it’s a completely different playstyle, it can work in the game’s favor, giving a fresh look on the series. Or it can look like it’s trying to imitate its much better counterparts. Where does Finding Teddy 2 fall?

Let’s find out



Finding Teddy 2 starts out with a homage to the Legend of Zelda series with its title screen, and then the scroll of what’s been going on. It tells of the events of the previous game, so you won’t need to play that to follow what’s going on in this sequel. Now for those of us who have played the first game this may be a little jarring, since a lot of the story wasn’t told to us as much as it was shown to us. There was no scroll at the beginning of the game – that went agonizingly slow – telling us what happened; it showed us the bear getting taken and the girl following. While it would have been nice to get more, that would have ruined the adventure of the game. It didn’t necessarily have to do that here, but it’s still surprising and boring if you didn’t expect it. Not only that but the game isn’t very specific on how this young lady can already use a sword and a shield so expertly. It’s not like in Castlevania or The Legend of Zelda where they mention training of some kind, this little girl just flails around aimlessly and can perform moves that other games of it types can do just as well while making it a unique gaming experience.  This game does have quirky art, a unique musical speaking mechanic and a strange story, but a game needs more than this to stand on its own, as a unique entity.

The controls are very well done on the gamepad, but the keybindings on the keyboard are a little strange. You can’t change what key does what, so you’re stuck stretching out your fingers in an odd position. It controls perfectly with a gamepad, so there’s really no point in playing it on a keyboard unless you don’t have a gamepad available.  Also, don’t try to remap your controls on the controller either, you won’t be able to, and since there’s not much of a tutorial you have to figure things out on your own



Conveying what to do to a player is very important, it actually helps them learn just what it is they are fighting for. In the first game, it was to get a little girl’s precious teddy bear back. In this game it’s to save a kingdom, but instead of showing us this they mention it in the scroll and then show us an evil cackling bad guy disappear into the night. Other than that the game feels almost empty at times, as if you are doing things just to do them.  It makes it very monotonous, and at times Finding Teddy 2 commits the sin that no game should commit: It’s boring.  It’s not like it’s a life simulator game where you get bored with planting turnips or doing errands for ungrateful villagers, this game is an action adventure game and it’s boring. It feels less like you’re on a quest and more like you’re on an errands run, and the amount of backtracking you have to do at times is almost painful.  

The game is pixel art based just like the first one and the graphics look nice and pixely. It looks neat, and that’s pretty much all you can say about it. Everything looks very kid friendly and cartoonish, just like the first game.  Every design is unique and fun looking making everything very pleasing to the eye. This probably wouldn’t be a bad game to let kids play around with if they want their first video game. There are some scary elements to it, but this is an excellent game for kids, it’s very simple.



“Simple” is something that one can use to describe most of this game, and while that isn’t a bad thing, it isn’t necessarily a good thing either. It emulates other games’ styles, like Metroid, Castlevania and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link  giving the player something familiar to play around with. The issue with this is that Finding Teddy 2 very rarely strays from this set formula. The game tries to emulate the other games, but doesn’t form an identity of its own. It resembles other games but ends up falling short of all of them, and doesn’t try anything to make itself too different. At times it feels like the developers went through a checklist of things that were popular in video games, and decided to apply them whenever they felt like it. It’s a little disheartening when you consider that there are creative ideas in this game and aspects that could be seen as unique but they aren’t nearly played with enough to make this game stand out from the rest.

Overall, Finding Teddy 2 has some great big ideas, but never utilizes them properly.  The musical communication, the setting and even the designs are all unique but the execution of it all is very simple. It tried to be multiple different genres and multiple different games, but it came off as a cheap imitation.  

Angelina Bonilla, NoobFeed (@Twitter)