The Winx Club PC Game Is An Underwhelming Mess

Intro:

When it comes to licensed video games—ones that are tie-ins to pre-existing media like TV shows or movies—there’s never been much hope in them actually being… ya know, good. There are some exceptions, like my beloved Battle for Bikini Bottom, but usually they tend to reek of short turnaround times and microscopic budgets.

Winx Club has had a few games since its 2004 debut, with most of them being handheld entries that can be described as… existent. You’ve got your side-scroller games, your dress-up games, your… mini-game games. It’s like Mario Party, but worse, I guess.

Naturally, being diseased with an unfathomable love for this franchise, I’ve played my fair share of Winx Club games, and I’m happy to report… they’re fine. My favorites tend to be the ones involving a bit more action, where I get to play as the Winx and fight monsters, but they’re usually quite underwhelming, and in terms of both aesthetic and gameplay design, leave a lot to be desired.

I enjoyed Quest for the Codex and Mission Enchantix on the DS, the latter especially because they didn’t make those insufferable mini-games mandatory. I swear, if tiny me had to endure another game of trying to protect Flora’s plants, I was gonna set the Alfea greenhouse on fire myself.

Saving Alfea looks like those games, but… worse, so no thank you, and I have no interest in the mobile games. My phone is a source of stress, and I refuse to game unless it’s on a dedicated console or handheld. Also fuck microtransactions and fuck Butterflix.

But my favorite Winx Club game was based on the very first season: the PC game. You can only play as Bloom, sadly, but you actually get to explore Alfea… well, like three rooms of it. But you also get to explore entire levels based on different episodes, like the Blackmud Swamp, Cloudtower (twice), Redfountain, and the snowy wastelands and palace ruins of Domino… err, Sparx.

It’s far from perfect, but it’s definitely the kind of game I’d love to see for Winx Club. Sadly, Rainbow isn’t even making a Winx Club show I wanna genuinely watch, and hasn’t since 2009, so I accept the fact there is no hope. Shoutout to that Roblox fan game my server always yells about that I’ll never play because I still don’t know what a Roblox is and it scares me.

But with my Steam Deck, I’ve been able to emulate the PS2 version of this game, along with the GameBoy Advance version I also enjoyed as a kid. And so today, I’d like to talk about both versions of this game, what I enjoy about them both, what I utterly loathe, and how I’d love to see this used as a foundation for my dream Winx game. Would it be a Tales-Of-style JRPG set across the worlds of the Magic Dimension? Well duh, do y’all even know me at this point?

The Game’s Format (exploration):

The Winx Club game is a pretty straightforward action platformer. Playing as Bloom, you move through levels collecting gems and opening treasure chests, and launching glittery fireballs at monsters from throughout the first season. After the first level in Gardenia Park, your hub world becomes Alfea. From there you go through five levels: Blackmud Swamp, Cloudtower, Redfountain, Domino/Sparx, and Cloudtower… again.

The story is basically just an abridged version of season 1, with Bloom discovering her magical powers, fighting the Trix, and romancing Sky/Brandon in very awkward proto-dating simulator sequences I always forget are there until I’m forced to play them, sitting there in awe of how Sky’s model looks like the love child of a spindly goblin and a mannequin.

The graphics… are certainly of their time. It’s not easy to translate a unique art style like Winx’s into 3D, where the characters’ paper-thin waistlines look like yassified Slendermen. For the most part, they aren’t too horrifying, and I actually really like the designs of all the environments. They’re too linear for my tastes, but I dig the liberties they took to make the levels more visually interesting.

Blackmud Swamp, for instance, starts a bit similar to the show as your standard green swamp, but it’s a bit more eerie with a faint fog and claustrophobic trees, along with giant bug enemies that have scarred me for life.

As you proceed, it gets later in the day, so the second area is soaked in sunset reds, creating a more somber, tense atmosphere. There’s this section you have to navigate through giant quietus carnivorous plants, which I love. That feels like a really nice adaptation from the original plants, which were just vines trying to strangle the specialists for being trash.

The final area takes place at night, with you navigating circular paths ‘til you reach a muddy clearing where the hunting troll is wreaking havoc, and I LOVE the atmosphere here. The faint yellow-green lights from lanterns, the looming purple darkness and shadows. Yes, just yes. More of this please.

The other levels aren’t as cool, sadly, but I do appreciate the effort to make them interesting. Cloudtower really gets to shine with how many areas they give you access to, like the library with the giant central pillar you have to turn, which we’ve all definitely fallen off of because the sadistic camera decided to trip us off for funzies.

Being a game from the 2000s, you’ve still got relics of the popular platformer and collect-a-thon genres. You get stars and gems scattered throughout the levels, and there are little white markers too, which you can use to reveal secrets through… a slot machine mini-game? Okay. Would be fine if not for the HORRIBLE sound it makes every single time you try to use it. Don’t enjoy having to turn down my speakers every time.

You don’t get much for collecting these, sadly. Just some extra slides in the Alfea library for concept art, which is cool. I’d actually love seeing more concept art from the show, but like… that’s it? There are also a few sidequests you can do, like finding minotaur hair for a potion Musa is making, or books on discipline so Griselda can find more effective torture methods for her students. Nothing ground-breaking, sadly.

At the very least, some sidequests will reward you with new outfits, created by game-exclusive character Looma, the Fairy of Fashion. Might I say… killer design, and excellent name. Eat your rotten heart out, Season 6 Stella.

The gameplay is… meh. The platforming isn’t very fun, since Bloom’s controls aren’t very precise. It’s far too easy to wind up missing a platform and fall to your goddamn death, especially in that swirling lake of swamp slop. That bit gave me nightmares, man. At times it feels like Bloom’s shoes are coated in grease, and she’s just slipping and sliding everywhere.

The combat is… also fine. Nothing major. You get to throw three energy blasts at a time at your target, you can charge up an AoE attack, and you can create a shield. There’s no cost to any of these moves, so it usually boils down to just spamming the attack button with the auto-aim feature, all the while you dance around trying your best not to get killed.

The real enemy here is the camera. It just moves on its own, automatically readjusting itself as you move, and it sucks. I never like these kinds of cameras, as they’ll always fuck up navigation as they swing themselves in all directions. Even when you try to move it, it’ll swing itself back to where it just was, like the camera itself is telling you to go jump in a river… or the swamp slop.

If you’re wondering if you get to play as the other Winx or transform, uh… sadly no. Well, kinda? Boss fights are the only spots where you transform, but you don’t get to fly around freely. Instead, the boss is at the center of the arena, with you flying in a circle around them, usually with the other Winx.

Here, attacks do cost you points, with you gathering energy from blue and pink crystals left behind by attacks, but also losing energy if you accidentally fly into black crystals. There’s a little bar on the side that lets you yell at one of the other Winx to get off their ass and do something, and in the final boss, lets you summon the Great Dragon to nuke Icy.

It’s… again, fine, but leaves a lot to be desired. I get they probably weren’t sure how to go about the way transformations and flight would open up gameplay options, but there had to be a more fun, interesting way than… this. And I do get Bloom is the main character, but not being able to play as all the Winx really sours the game for me. Like, it’s called Winx Club. Don’t you want players to be able to step into the shoes of their favorite Winx member like they’ve always dreamed of doing?

If you’re trying to do everything, the game will still only last you like… 5, maybe 6 hours, and it’s even shorter if you’re just burning through it. Ultimately, it’s just an okay game, but the fact that it’s still the closest thing to my ideal Winx game… depresses me deeply.

The GBA Version:

Now, this is basically a pixel-art version of the PC game, but somehow even shorter. I do generally enjoy pixel art styles, so there’s a lot of charm here, but sadly, environments are usually very uninspired large rooms or open spaces. Combat is mostly the same, but you do get to float around the arena in boss fights… doesn’t mean much, but it’s there.

The story is also largely the same, with the same levels. Though there is one weird change after the Redfountain section. In the PC version, Bloom goes immediately to Gardenia, you fight Darcy and Stormy, and the Trix steal the Dragon Flame, leaving you to… throw snowballs in the following level on Sparx. You do get your powers back by the end of that level, but it at least echoes that arc of Bloom being without her magic for the final stretch of season 1.

In the GBA version, though, the Darcy and Stormy boss doesn’t happen. You go right to Alfea, where Faragonda informs you that somehow, the Trix… caught a spark of Bloom’s Dragon Flame. Okay? Were they in the stands at Redfountain catching stray sparks as Bloom was beating the ever-loving shit out of Diaspro?

I expected this to be a pretty charming game, but overall, it’s just… bleh. You can breeze through it even faster than the PC version. At the very least, there is this iconic scream where Bloom falls into a dark chasm on Sparx. Always warms my brittle, shriveled little heart.

My Dream Winx Game:

Now, if you will allow me to indulge in my delusive dreaming, I’d like to talk about what my ideal Winx Club game would look like. And surprising none of you, it would be one that takes notes from the Tales Of series, with a character-driven story allowing you to play as any of the main cast, battling your way through the story, exploring different fantastical worlds and cities, and enjoying an original story loosely inspired by the source material.

Given Winx Club has a large cast, a JRPG-sort of style makes a lot of sense to me. Here, you’d have each of the Winx making up your party of six. Assuming we’re going for the Tales Of brand of real-time combat, you’d encounter an enemy in the overworld, then be transitioned to an arena just for combat, where four of your party would work together to battle a group of enemies.

And of course, each Winx would translate to your traditional character classes, or maybe a mix of them. Bloom could be a brawler type of character with her Dragon Flame magic, but also a healer, assuming we remember that season 2 exists. Flora could be a tank focused on defense with her vines, Musa could be good for handling large groups with instrument-themed attacks, and so on. And of course, they’d be transformed for these battles.

Tales games also feature skits, which are little 2D cutscenes that let the characters have conversations with each other outside of battle. They can be about anything, whether it’s their thoughts on the plot, emotional confessions and discussions, backstories, or just… what everyone’s favorite food is. Winx fans I think would ADORE this as a way to spend more time with their favorite fairies in ways they couldn’t in a show with only 22-minute episodes.

And of course, fashion can still play a role. In Tales games, you get to customize your characters with unique outfits. Sadly, modern Tales games have locked most of these options as DLC, and I don’t think Rainbow would pass up that opportunity, but ideally, I’d prefer costumes and accessories to be unlocked through sidequests. Imagine being able to dress the Winx in ALL the outfits they’ve ever had? Even their fairy outfits outside of battle?

 Now, what I would love is the ability to explore the Magic Dimension. It’s such a unique, expansive setting, and I’d love the chance to explore every nook and cranny myself. Alfea can serve as the hub, of course, letting us explore the Winx dorm, the cafeteria, all the halls, and the exterior. I’m still really mad the official PC game never let us explore Alfea’s quad.

And moreover, I’d appreciate areas and dungeons being freely explorable levels rather than linear ones. Not open-world, but more akin to the level design found in the Sly Cooper or Kingdom Hearts games. I’d really like to visit the cities and towns of Solaria or Andros, and then have the oceans of Andros, or the forests of Lynphea as dungeons filled with monsters.

And as for a plot, I’d prefer not having a recap of the story from the show. Instead, I’d prefer an approach akin to Sailor Moon: Another Story. I’ve never played it myself, but to my knowledge, it’s an original story that uses elements of the first three story arcs. Perhaps something’s going on that forces the Winx to face familiar foes, like the Trix, Darkar, and Valtor, all tied together by an original threat. Perhaps it could be set sometime after Secret of the Lost Kingdom, with the Winx dealing with their first crisis as full-fledged Guardian Fairies.

It’ll never happen, I know, but I like to dream. Anyhow, thank y’all for listening to my nonsense.

Conclusion & Outro:

I just want nice, fun things, including a good Winx Club game, and sadly, the universe has failed to deliver one that I can fully sink my teeth into. At the very least, I hope y’all enjoyed my ramblings. Maybe I’ll try out some of the other games and make videos about them? I doubt I’ll enjoy them, but maybe y’all will like that, so you can be amused by my suffering.