Fighting Dog review: A cute but frustrating platformer
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| Fighting Dog review: A cute but frustrating platformer |
I hate dogfighting makes me hate dogfighting. look at him. And he doesn't deserve it. See his little paws over there hanging from that cannon? Tip of the iceberg. You have not seen his thirst, the joy of life, swinging among the world's many easy-to-use floating hook platforms. No matter how many times he has climbed before, you have not witnessed his brave determination to climb wall after wall. Don't like his aggressiveness because he jumps over the head of every polar bear or every (hesitating) crab's belly that is still bouncy.
At the end of my seven hours with fighting dogs, I want to strangle this bastard with his damn hook.
We start on better terms. Of course, he'll never move as accurately as Meat Boy or Celeste, and yes, I felt it when I targeted the robotic thug's jump. Jumping between platforms feels good, and wider targets require less precise controls - plus I'm busy figuring out the grappling hook.
It's a nice hook in some ways, but it's very limited. You find it in the opening minutes, in some sealed ruins related to ancient and respected figures known as the great inventors. You also found your first bot there, and of course, he tricked you into releasing it so that it could destroy the world. This puts you in a race to recover five more artifacts (unfortunately, it doesn't change the gameplay), and swing across classic platforming areas like lava, beaches, and ice. Everything is a Saturday morning cartoon with a jetpack scientist bunny who loves dogfighting but is very shy about it. For the most part, this is all very nice, but for now, talking about crash hooks is a distraction.
You can just tilt it left or right, or straight. Once connected, you can swing up and down freely, as well as build momentum by swinging from side to side. Not much though. You can't keep swinging past whatever point the hook attaches to, so you can never allow yourself to fly normally as if you were on a worm or an exposed bed. As if there is some mysterious cosmic force bent on taking away your joy, I think it must be the designer's hand, forcing you to jump through the hoops set for each level instead of soaring over them.
I cannot completely condemn this practice. I can see how hard it is to design dozens of challenging levels around a less clogged hook, and this one still has its moments. It shines in short and sadly infrequent stretches where you can pick up a bit of speed, link the swing to the swing as you go between spikes and various robotic goofs. This is when fighting dogs are at their best when you are being propelled by a rope swing or a cannon blast. Ripping through screen after the screen is vibrant, rhythmic, and vocal in style, and a name like Grab Dog should inspire as you move forward with confidence and charm.