Review: Winx Club Reboot Video Game

To coincide with the recent Winx Club reboot, Winx Club: The Magic Is Back, a multi-platform video game developed by Iron Frog, was launched under the same title. The studio used a grassroots marketing campaign for this game by reaching out to influencers to help promote it, including me, but did not respond to my request for a review copy, so this is my honest review. They also released the game at a discounted rate, which is usually not a good sign. It seemed they needed all the help they could get because Winx Club: The Magic Is Back feels more like a '90s PC game than a modern-day console release. The controls are simple, the world is limited, and the plot is practically non-existent.

For me, the primary appeal of playing a video game inspired by the Winx Club franchise is the ability to transform into a fairy and use the girls' unique powers in battle or to perform various tasks. Did it satisfy this expectation? Technically, yes, but only at the bare minimum level. The game allows players to control two Winx girls at a time, so they can switch between them or bring in a friend to play the second character in co-op mode. The two player fairies can be swapped out at any time between any of the six main Winx Girls, but it makes very little difference which character you are controlling, except when encountering puzzles to open up new areas that have symbols that are associated with a specific fairy.

This game somehow makes the ability to turn into a fairy feel mundane and unnecessary, despite being hte main selling point of Winx Club. It gives the girls the exact same powers in human form as they have in fairy form, meaning there is little benefit to transforming aside from a small boost in strength and magic. Even though turning into a fairy makes the character hover a few inches above the ground, it does not allow players to access any section of the map that they can't already access as a human, even places that are split by chasms and require a bridge to cross. While there is a slight difference in the attack animation based on the fairies' powers (water for Aisha, fire for Bloom, etc.), the basic attack and defense abilities remain the same no matter which character the player selects as her avatar.

The game is divided into 16 levels that take roughly 5-10 minutes each that allow players to travel around different parts of the Magix dimension. The game's linear nature and repetitive puzzles to unlock new areas make the world feel pretty limited. Most levels end with a battle with Hunter, a generic-looking troll, but the Trix girls also show up on occasion, building toward the final battle where you must defeat all three of them. At the conclusion of each level, the player characters return to Alfea to solve a puzzle for Riven, find frogs for named Nara, get their next assignment from Miss Faragonda, and receive a request from Rose to find a new plant at the next location. The reason I remember these tasks so well is because they happen after practically every level, giving the game a static and lazy feel that replaces plot or character development with repetitive tasks. There are also few references to the plot or characters from the new series, though some of the newer characters have brief cameos.

The video game adaptation of Winx Club: The Magic Is Back falls short of expectations, feeling like a bare-bones, outdated game. Despite its nostalgic premise, the lack of plot, limited world, and redundant tasks make for a lackluster experience. Even the main selling point of transforming into a fairy feels unnecessary and underutilized. The dialogue and abilities are the same no matter which character you play as, blending all six Winx girls into one generic "girl" personality. Unless you're a die-hard Winx fan, there are better games out there.