A rare Game Boy retro platformer experience, Dogurai instantly sticks out with its visual style that uses the Game Boy-style palettes to create a pretty stylistic art direction. The game's strongest aspect is this retro styling, the sprites fit perfectly into that crunchy old school Game Boy vibe while having enough beyond it to add plenty of personality. The tunes are also perfectly fitting to the idea and some of them bop, although I wouldn't exactly call it an amazing soundtrack and on some of the harder parts it could get more repetitive. The story is very barebones but fitting for the GB/GBC stylings: You're a retired dog samurai and when your partner is kidnapped, you come out of retirement to take out the machines who have taken over the world and their leader and save them! There's even two ending depending on if you get some optional collectibles, although I missed one and didn't do that.
No need beating around the bush: I didn't like this game. At a base it controls well enough, but each level feels like a mix of overly simplistic platforming with at least one gimmick per stage that annoyed me. Let's take the ice world for example. The fact that it has ice physics isn't bad, but they are sooooooo slippery! Even the lightest tap sends you flying. At first it is cool that you can get some serious air from the momentum of it and the very first bit of platforming with it even seems like it would encourage it...then it turns out there's a quite solid wall to anyone who wanted to do that and that now you have to do precision, small block platforming on these ice physics that are just NOT properly tuned for it, with timed traps then added on top of every single one! It isn't even particularly hard, you basically just have to keep jumping to reset yourself on them and the obstacles only deal one point of damage, but it becomes overly frustrating to actually navigate and so ceases being fun. It's also a questionable design decision to make traps that freeze you and want you to mash out on ice physics that send you flying from small taps.
For another example, the fire level has a lava wall segment, if you've ever played a lava wall segment you know the type: Keep moving right, don't let it touch you or you die. It's filled with sliding segments, disappearing blocks and the works, which looks like it should be this fast paced dash and slash segment. The thing is the enemy placements are soooo bad, to the point that multiple times actually dealing with enemies will cause you to be caught by the wall unless you've got it memorized with great execution. I ended up plotting routes that simply worked with me being hit or using it to damage boost because avoiding them was so tight or annoying. It ended up being unfun and hardly a "true" challenge. The second half of the city-forest level also ended up falling into this, I basically accepted a few hits to get through the platforming.
This persists for most of the game: The bike segment in the initial level is cool, but some of the detection is weird for it, the desert level suffers from screen crunch (did we REALLY need to replicate the screen crunch when it's not released on an actual Game Boy? Is there literally a single person in the world who is nostalgic for the Game Boy's screen crunch?) and the amount of enemies + projectiles makes damage feel like an inevitability, the bosses range from extremely easy (most of the stage bosses) to frustrating (the penultimate boss and slime boss). One thing I hated is that the final boss' hitbox on his body feels soooooo tight to his body that jumping up to hit him is likely to take a hit even if your sprites don't overlap. It got to the point I had a first round I dodged every one of their attacks, but ended the first phase at half health solely from those hits. It's extremely easy, literally just time slides, but put together frustratingly.
I admire the dedication to retro, but it feels at times needlessly selective and picky about it. For example, the game automatically is not going for a completely "authentic" Game Boy platformer because it is a 3 button game (jump/attack/slide) when the Game Boy was a 2-button system. Despite this the game lacks any kind of way to change control scheme. Personally in platformers I prefer jump on B and attack on A because I find it the most natural to hit, but here I had to make due with jump on B but attack on Y. This isn't horrible because it functions and isn't some out there control scheme, but would it really be that difficult to at least offer a few control options?
The Game Boy retro model does allow it to go for simplicity, but it feels like it uses that a bit more like an excuse or crutch. The jump, attack and slide are almost all you can do, with no power-ups or boss items or whatnot. Classic Game Boy platformers like Mega Man V, which is a very apt comparison as this game is clearly Mega Man inspired and even uses it for the pre-final boss screen as an homage, or Super Mario Land both offer more depth. Mega Man V fit in Rush, new weapons after bosses, more expansive stages and more. I'm not saying it HAD to be as expansive, but that it being a Game Boy throwback isn't an "excuse" to be so basic, if anything it feels like a demake that has gone so far into demaking it's behind what it was aiming for.
One thing I did like and was forward thinking was the QTE attacking that you could do: Certain enemies, and every boss, have select times where if you are in range an exclamation point will appear over their head, at which point you need to slash with the correct timing and direction the game prompts you to do some sickass flash step moves to deal big damage. This feels stylish, but very few non-bosses use it, and I feel like it could have been utilized a bit more since right now it too often boils down to "wait for the boss to use the attack that lets you use the flash step". Given this is a 3-button game with one button unused, maybe the fourth button could have been a parry that allows you to go into it? This would add an active timing component to it rather than pure patience.
Overall, yeah, I wasn't a fan. A cute throwback art style and a single interesting mechanic can't save levels that often feel frustrating in their placement and not in a fun Castlevania-ish challenge way, it often ends up overly basic and is actually really easy when it isn't throwing level design that can feel nigh impossible to avoid. At a very cheap price, I got it on sale for 1.99, it might be worth checking out if you're reeeeeeeally into retro Game Boy platformers, but for the most part I'd recommend most other games over it.
No need beating around the bush: I didn't like this game. At a base it controls well enough, but each level feels like a mix of overly simplistic platforming with at least one gimmick per stage that annoyed me. Let's take the ice world for example. The fact that it has ice physics isn't bad, but they are sooooooo slippery! Even the lightest tap sends you flying. At first it is cool that you can get some serious air from the momentum of it and the very first bit of platforming with it even seems like it would encourage it...then it turns out there's a quite solid wall to anyone who wanted to do that and that now you have to do precision, small block platforming on these ice physics that are just NOT properly tuned for it, with timed traps then added on top of every single one! It isn't even particularly hard, you basically just have to keep jumping to reset yourself on them and the obstacles only deal one point of damage, but it becomes overly frustrating to actually navigate and so ceases being fun. It's also a questionable design decision to make traps that freeze you and want you to mash out on ice physics that send you flying from small taps.
For another example, the fire level has a lava wall segment, if you've ever played a lava wall segment you know the type: Keep moving right, don't let it touch you or you die. It's filled with sliding segments, disappearing blocks and the works, which looks like it should be this fast paced dash and slash segment. The thing is the enemy placements are soooo bad, to the point that multiple times actually dealing with enemies will cause you to be caught by the wall unless you've got it memorized with great execution. I ended up plotting routes that simply worked with me being hit or using it to damage boost because avoiding them was so tight or annoying. It ended up being unfun and hardly a "true" challenge. The second half of the city-forest level also ended up falling into this, I basically accepted a few hits to get through the platforming.
This persists for most of the game: The bike segment in the initial level is cool, but some of the detection is weird for it, the desert level suffers from screen crunch (did we REALLY need to replicate the screen crunch when it's not released on an actual Game Boy? Is there literally a single person in the world who is nostalgic for the Game Boy's screen crunch?) and the amount of enemies + projectiles makes damage feel like an inevitability, the bosses range from extremely easy (most of the stage bosses) to frustrating (the penultimate boss and slime boss). One thing I hated is that the final boss' hitbox on his body feels soooooo tight to his body that jumping up to hit him is likely to take a hit even if your sprites don't overlap. It got to the point I had a first round I dodged every one of their attacks, but ended the first phase at half health solely from those hits. It's extremely easy, literally just time slides, but put together frustratingly.
I admire the dedication to retro, but it feels at times needlessly selective and picky about it. For example, the game automatically is not going for a completely "authentic" Game Boy platformer because it is a 3 button game (jump/attack/slide) when the Game Boy was a 2-button system. Despite this the game lacks any kind of way to change control scheme. Personally in platformers I prefer jump on B and attack on A because I find it the most natural to hit, but here I had to make due with jump on B but attack on Y. This isn't horrible because it functions and isn't some out there control scheme, but would it really be that difficult to at least offer a few control options?
The Game Boy retro model does allow it to go for simplicity, but it feels like it uses that a bit more like an excuse or crutch. The jump, attack and slide are almost all you can do, with no power-ups or boss items or whatnot. Classic Game Boy platformers like Mega Man V, which is a very apt comparison as this game is clearly Mega Man inspired and even uses it for the pre-final boss screen as an homage, or Super Mario Land both offer more depth. Mega Man V fit in Rush, new weapons after bosses, more expansive stages and more. I'm not saying it HAD to be as expansive, but that it being a Game Boy throwback isn't an "excuse" to be so basic, if anything it feels like a demake that has gone so far into demaking it's behind what it was aiming for.
One thing I did like and was forward thinking was the QTE attacking that you could do: Certain enemies, and every boss, have select times where if you are in range an exclamation point will appear over their head, at which point you need to slash with the correct timing and direction the game prompts you to do some sickass flash step moves to deal big damage. This feels stylish, but very few non-bosses use it, and I feel like it could have been utilized a bit more since right now it too often boils down to "wait for the boss to use the attack that lets you use the flash step". Given this is a 3-button game with one button unused, maybe the fourth button could have been a parry that allows you to go into it? This would add an active timing component to it rather than pure patience.
Overall, yeah, I wasn't a fan. A cute throwback art style and a single interesting mechanic can't save levels that often feel frustrating in their placement and not in a fun Castlevania-ish challenge way, it often ends up overly basic and is actually really easy when it isn't throwing level design that can feel nigh impossible to avoid. At a very cheap price, I got it on sale for 1.99, it might be worth checking out if you're reeeeeeeally into retro Game Boy platformers, but for the most part I'd recommend most other games over it.