Miraculous: Rise of the Sphinx

I cover shooters for a living, so handing me a licensed kids action-platformer and asking me to assess it is a bit like asking a mechanic to review a tricycle. That said, the tricycle question matters: is this thing safe, does it roll straight, and is it worth what you pay? On two of those three counts, Rise of the Sphinx scrapes a pass. The structure is split roughly in two halves. The superhero sections put you on the rooftops of Paris as Ladybug and Cat Noir, and you can hot-swap between them on the fly. Ladybug swings her yo-yo, Cat Noir vaults with his staff, and the moment-to-moment movement is actually the game's strongest card - bounding from chimney to balcony across a Parisian skyline is light, quick, and genuinely enjoyable in short bursts. The hub sections flip you into the civilian identities of Marinette and Adrien, where you walk around town, chat to show characters, and build a friendship meter through dialogue choices. That second half is thin. The friendship system has no meaningful impact on anything, pathfinding in what presents itself as an open city is weirdly restrictive, and it reads more like a runtime-padder than a design decision. Combat is where my patience ran out fastest. On paper there are combo strings, a parry that triggers off an exclamation-mark warning above enemy heads, and an upgrade shop where orbs and macarons you collect in levels convert into new moves. In practice, button-mashing carries you through every standard enemy encounter without breaking a sweat. The six boss fights ask you to read attack patterns and wait for an opening, which is at least a functional loop, but the difficulty floor is so low it barely registers. There are graphical bugs, frame-rate hiccups during some boss fights, and in-game animation that looks noticeably stiffer than the slick cutscenes. Both the French and English voice casts from the show are present for those cutscenes, which is a genuine plus for fans, but in-level dialogue drops to text only. Runtime is a real issue. A first playthrough lands somewhere around four hours. There is a New Game Plus mode after completion, and collectible orbs and macarons give you reason to revisit levels, but completionists are still looking at a short total. Steam reviews sit at roughly 51 percent positive, which tracks - kids who love the show tend to rate it warmly, adults who bought it for themselves or played alongside their children are much less generous. Bottom line from someone who normally lives in ranked lobbies: this is a functional, inoffensive kids game that serves its audience - under-tens who are already fans of the Miraculous animated series. It runs, it looks like the show, the parkour movement has a decent feel to it, and local co-op means a parent can sit next to a kid and get through it together. Anyone outside that demographic will find it thin, buggy in spots, and over before it gets interesting. Fred, Scout Team