Dora: Rainforest Rescue | Review

Dora's about to explore Xbox, effectively for the first time

Győző "FairyEmpire" Baki11 hours agoLast Updated: December 18, 2025

0 260 4 minutes read

Hola, soy Dora! My Spanish may be rusty, but your children, younger cousins, friends’ pre-school relatives, etc. may still be in time to catch up. To coincide with an impressive 50% discount, we finally got around to review Dora: Rainforest Rescue, tested on Xbox Series X!

Dora: Rainforest Rescue | Review | Image Credit: Artax Games, Outright Games

Outright Games are turning into a guarantee, nowadays

Dora, protagonist of the Dora The Explorer and the Dora: Say Hola to Adventure! series, is easily one of the most recognizable pre-school mascots of the last decades. With various charming characters and a focus of language learning in interactive ways, it’s no surprise it has become such a popular IP. And what is more interactive than a videogame? Xbox-owning parents can finally get a videogame solely dedicated to the young girl’s adventures, after Nick Jr. Party Adventure and Nickelodeon Dance, back in the Xbox 360 Kinect days, only featured her as one of many fictional stars.

Behind the project is Outright Games, publishers of some of the better licensed games based on IPs for children. I recently reviewed their rather enjoyable trip to Gabby’s Dollhouse, but their Bratz Rhythm & Style game has been added to Game Pass very recently, too. What this publisher is releasing for children animated shows has been quite impressive, and their cadence has been notable too. Whereas other publishers like GameMill are rather hit and miss on their output, I can safely say that if you read Outright Games on the box, chances are, you’re getting a solid game for your youngests.

Retraso

Today, of course, we’re here to talk about Dora: Rainforest Rescue. A game I’ve been, regrettably, pushing back a bit in terms of review – a handful of real life situations, including moving to a brand new house and thus lacking Internet for a while, has kept me rather occupied and preoccupied. I’d like to use this opportunity to say sorry to Artax Games and publisher Outright Games for taking so long. On the bright side, the game is currently 50% off for Xbox’s holiday sales, dropping from the 39.99 USD/EUR launch price to 19.99 USD/EUR until January. Thus, this feels like the second best time to talk about the game!

The short version is that Dora: Rainforest Rescue is a cute, charming little platformer, made for pre-schoolers. It is, obviously, based on the Dora animated series, and it features either solo or co-op gameplay for 2 players. It is easy, accessible, but it does offer enough challenges, quizes and other interactive elements to stimulate the problem-solving skills and the language-learning of our youth. If the youngest around you love Dora, they’ll be right at home with this game.

Super Dora 3D World

To help with the immersion, Dora: Rainforest Rescue features a few iconic locations and ton of characters from the show, all dubbed from what I assume to be the original actors – they certainly sound similar, from what I can tell. Isa, Tico, Swiper, you name it. The gang is here! Most of the game structured somewhat similarly to Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World. As in, a mixture between a regular 3D platformer, but with a farther away camera that lets us explore worlds that are 3D, but still offer various “flat” segments. The difficulty is, of course, very low, with the player even being instantly restored via a bubble if they happen to fall into the water, with barely any difficult obstacles. It’s more about exploring than platforming, really.

Players get to collect leaves and other items, exploring and progressing through the colourful levels set in forests that will feel familiar for the show’s viewers. There’s often slightly hidden alternate paths, offering even more collectibles and secrets. The “aimless” exploration is often broken up by actual objectives, such as a character requiring items to build a bridge, a hot air balloon and so forth. These rarely change the core gameplay, though there’s occasional diversions – such as when a grumpy old troll only lets us through if we correctly answer a (simple) question. If for some the player still gets stuck, our helpful friend Map can give us a hint as to what we need to do, where to go and so forth.

I’ve seen that before

It’s always a bit tough to realistically rate a game aimed at pre-schoolers, as what an adult may find simple and repetitive may just become your child’s favourite thing ever. As is the case for many such games, it can be completed in a couple hours, though the way the stages offer alternate paths for collectibles does keep some replayability, and so does the co-op aspect. As someone vaguely familiar with the Dora IP, I think it does the series justice and it’s charming enough for your kids to enjoy. That is what counts, ultimately.

If there’s something I’d lament about the game, is its repetition – you never really change biomes, the gameplay barely ever evolves, and even the troll encounters and such are virtually identical. There’s a few fun minigames and diversions, but they rarely last long. Thus, there’s not much of a difference between hour 1 or hour 3 of Dora: Rainforest Rescue. I’ve also found the graphics to be a little weak, even compared to other Outright Games titles in recent memory. At least the game performs well and I encountered no real glitches or issues during my playthrough.

Another solid and accessible licensed game for children

Ultimately, like many licensed games based on pre-school programs, Dora: Rainforest Rescue is not a deep or innovative platformer. It is, however, very loyal to the Dora IP, it is bright and colourful and incredibly accessible for even young players’ first videogame ever. It could have used some more inventive or variety, but it’s a great Christmas gift for young Dora fans. Especially now that it’s 50% off!