Teddy Floppy Ear: Kayaking

The Good
Teddy Floppy Ear is a little bear known from several Polish children's media. He was created in 1957 in children's books and later, in the 1970s and 1980s, became best known from a TV series. While he now seems a little forgotten even in Poland itself, he is still recognizable enough that he has also become the protagonist of games. A few games have been created and "Kayaking" is one of them. This one seems closer to the Teddy Floppy Ear known from TV, it features some characters known from the series such as Piglet or Auntie Oink-Oink. It has a nice, slightly old-fashioned atmosphere and graphics which, while created on a computer, resemble traditional puppet animation known from the series.
Of course it is a game for children, and for quite small ones - rather kindergarten or early school age. I am a childless by choice (I don't like the word "childfree" because it implies that children are something bad - and I, while I have never even for a minute wished to be a parent, absolutely respect children) adult person who really enjoys some children's books, films and games. So judging the game accurately can be a little hard for me because, for example, all logic-based and mathematical minigames (as opposed to dexterity-based - more about it in "The Bad") are painfully obvious for a player much above the intended age group.
Minigames are a well-established element of mostly children's games (though not exclusively - for example, there are several minigames in the adventure series "Deponia", too hard and even unsuitable for young children - using the system used in Polish cinemas, I would grade it as 12+). I like them - they introduce more variety, even from the purely esthetic point of view, because very often a minigame differs in its style of graphics from other parts of a whole adventure game. "Teddy Floppy Ear: Kayaking" includes several minigames. The first one is very close to the beginning, though it's very short - the goal is to make four frogs jump to water lily pads corresponding to their colours. The nut-collecting minigame can be a little hard because of the mosquitoes, the rapids minigame is very nice also because it's the only keyboard-controlled part of the game, the mathematics minigame is simple and, unfortunately, not accessible from the "Minigames" submenu (which becomes fully available after the first gameplay), the diving minigame is a skill game too, but quite easy, and the maze minigame suffers from a serious problem I will explain in "The Bad"... However, generally, these minigames are a good idea. Children's games often don't have much of a plot and periodically interrupting it with minigames makes them more interesting.

The Bad
There is, unfortunately, one factor which greatly limits the game's attractiveness: the kayak steering. Walking on dry land poses no problems, and Teddy will repeatedly leave his kayak in a safe place for a while. However, the kayak repeatedly seems to get stuck, as if it got entangled in waterweeds near the shore or its bottom touched a flat shoal. I have encountered this kind of situation a few times on real kayaks, canoes, boats and pedaloes, but in these situations one knows what to do - I have been pushing away from the shore with my mom using our paddles. However, in a game it's more difficult. Usually paddling on a straight section of river goes without any hindrances, sharp turns are harder and the kayak also seems to get stuck after conversations with someone sitting at the shore. I have found a way of "unlocking" the kayak: the solution is to click an item (one item which Teddy Floppy Ear carries all the time from the moment shortly before he leaves to the end of the game is his picnic basket, other items are usually used quite soon). However, this solution doesn't work in one place: in the maze (you have to help a mother duck find her ducklings), because as a minigame it has no inventory access. It only has buttons for sound control, restarting and skipping the minigame - and finally, I found the last of these to be the only solution.
Calling a children's game "hard" feels a little embarrassing... However, in terms of dexterity I don't think there is a particular difference between older children and adults before senile age. Some actions can be harder for toddlers who are still learning to eat by themselves, but not for 6-year-olds who often can already write. We adults have much bigger hands then children, but I don't find it to be a real advantage. Well, at least I have always felt that I, as an individual, am rather clumsy. I drop some little item almost every day. Combat sequences in adventure-RPGs such as "Heroine's Quest" are only playable for me with the lowest skill settings. So it seems that it terms of dexterity only, Forever Entertainment has unwittingly created quite a difficult game.
Let me translate a part of someone's comment about another game from the Teddy Floppy Ear series, the non-adventure game "The Race":
"20 minutes later... The oldest member of the group comes to the balcony with my daughter.
- Uncle, could you complete one cup for us? The game is too hard.
- What are you saying, Simon? - I jumped on my seat, almost spilling my drink. - How too hard?
- It's just too hard, we can't finish the easiest cup.
- But who can't? You can't?
- Yup, me, the others don't even want to play.
Surprised by such information and still disbelieving, I asked:
- But what game are you playing, still the Teddy Floppy Ear race? Or have you started another game?
(...)
- It's the teddy race. I haven't started anything else. Uncle, could you help us?
(...)
And at this point I have to ask the 'dev'lopers'. For whom have you created this beeping game? For children? Stop beeping pulling my leg. Have you tested this game on children? Or is it meant to be some return to childhood and I, being thirty years old, should play it myself? Maybe for veterans of 'Need for Speed' or 'Dirt?' I beep don't understand it, dear sirs; when making a game you should define the potential user group. In single mode the game is unplayable for children. And multiplayer is only far-fetched fun because kids will lose against the computer anyway."
"Kayaking" seems to be suffering from the same problem: the game is, from a purely skill-based point of view, just too hard at some points. Although I suspect that in this case it's not necessarily any conscious decision, but rather sloppy bug fixing... Perhaps the game is easier to play on touchscreen devices (I can't be sure because I have none of those, even my mobile is an 18-year-old Nokia - I'm rather a "technological conservative") and then the game has been ported to mouse-controlled PCs without testing how it works? I have no idea which versions were earlier, but I suspect the developers could have completely disregarded testing the playability of these sequences.

The Bottom Line
"Teddy Floppy Ear: Kayaking" is, of course, a game for children and dedicated adult lovers of children's games. It's rather short, not too complicated, but nice anyway. Or rather: it would have been a nice game if not for the horrible kayak steering. This problem is mostly possible to fix by clicking inventory items - but remember that the game will still be fairly frustrating because of this. Unfortunately, releasing a game with such serious bugs can only be judged as serious lack of professional attitude on the developers' part.