Theater Tales
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Baked Games
Published By : Ultimate Games
Category : Education
Release Date : Apr 24, 2019

Theater Tales on the Nintendo Switch is not your typical experience for a video game. There are no platform sections to master, no bosses to defeat. Instead, you are treated to a nice, smooth digital puppet show that seeks to tell a story. Even moreso, to take you on a journey, or rather your little one. Tucked behind the curtain of this stage are a handful of children’s favorite stories that are meant to be experienced more than played.

To begin, there are six stories on display, but you can only choose one immediately : Little Red Riding Hood. The way you “play” the game is presented as a very guided point-and-click adventure. You’ll have a character on a little stick that you’ll need to guide around the stage area. Certain items will need to be either picked up, moved, or combined, and as you need these items simply move your character to them and press A.

For a game marked as “educational” though, I didn’t really see much of it. The game offers no voices and no text overlays, and no other way of communicating some sort of teaching. Instead, the best thing I can say about Theatre Tales is that it’s a visualizer to help you tell a story to your child, or even with them if you’re playing together.

As for being a game that a child could play alone, not so much for someone really young. They would at least have to be old enough to understand the concept and usage of the joysticks. I sat with my two year-old and he loved going through it, but he constantly kept trying to use the touch screen, which was surprisingly not an option in this game since at a first glance it seems like it would be the only way to play.

In the end, it really is a cute little game. If you are familiar with the stories featured in the game, it serves as a great visual enhancement to telling that story. You might even let your child control the game, and you tell them the story as a way to sort of guide them on where to go in the game. There is definitely some fun to be had with this game though, that’s for sure. Just don’t lean into this one expecting much from the “educational” source.