Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park is an action/platform game based on the Cabbage Patch Kids toys that were popular in the mid-Eighties (and are still available to this day). It was first released for the ColecoVision in 1984.

The toys were initially produced by Coleco Industries, so their transition to video games via the ColecoVision console seems like a natural one, although this game’s release occurred at a point in time when the North American video game market was in decline, so it could also be seen as an attempt to try to halt that decline by using a license of a popular toy product to motivate sales.

Adventures in the Park is a simple game where you control a young girl, called Anna Lee, who is on an adventure through a park that has a variety of random obstacles to negotiate. Anna must make it through each stage before the timer counts down to zero, otherwise a “rest” is lost.

There are ropes to swing on (which are similar to those seen in David Crane‘s Pitfall), log platforms to jump over (if you fall off you lose a life), trampolines to bounce on, ponds and holes in the ground to avoid, bouncing balls to dodge, and various other traps and meanies to avoid. You can also collect occasional fruit for extra points.

Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park was developed by Konami, for Coleco, and it does contain some of the hallmarks of early Konami games. Some versions of the ColecoVision game feature Coleco as the company on the title screen, while others say Konami. An MSX cartridge version was also published by Konami in 1983, called just “Cabbage Patch Kids“.

What is strange is that the game’s title screen (in some versions) says “adventure” (singular) “in the park“, while the packaging says “adventures” (plural) “in the park“. Some versions have the word “adventure” corrected to “adventures“, and different option screens, so different versions of this game were produced for the ColecoVision.

Graphically, the game is appealing and well-produced, and the jolly music helps drive the game along. Gameplay is repetitive, but increasingly becomes more challenging. In fact, what makes this game much more interesting than other kid’s games, like Smurfs: Rescue in Gargarmel’s Castle, is that the screens increase in difficulty as the stages progress, and by stage four they become significantly harder. Which is good as it gives Adventures in the Park some longevity.

More: Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park on Wikipedia