Are you a score whore? Are you the kind of person that belongs in the age of the Atari 2600 and the arcades when the test of a true gamer was getting your name on the leaderboard? Well, if that’s you then Russian Subway Dogs from Spooky Squid Games is the game for you. Oh, and it’s also cute as heck with all sorts of pixelated puppers.
Russian Subway Dogs is a simple affair. You take control of a dog that lives in the Russian subway system and it’s your job to stay alive by scrounging for food before the time ends, or you die from hunger. It sounds pretty dark, but the game is anything but.
This colorful adventure is focused on playability. It’s the sort of game that anybody can pick up and play while requiring a lot of skill to master it’s mechanics. You move left to right on the screen looking for a bite to eat before you die. To do this you run up behind people with food and bark at them, forcing them to drop whatever they are eating. Lastly you can jump about which rounds out your abilities.
The magic comes from collecting the food, each of which comes with a different nutrition value that you have some control over. You can up the value of food items depending on what you do. Your bark will also bounce items and let’s you build up the score multiplier in fun ways. If you catch food in the air you get a bonus, if you manage to cook the food you get a bigger bonus, and if the food hits the ground it loses value.
There is a fair bit going on for a game that is so simple on the surface. Not only will people carry around food of different value and type, but people will also carry around vodka which can also be bounced around. When this vodka hits the ground it will explode, cooking the food in the process. As you get better in the game you’ll be bouncing vodka about at the same time as you are food for a pretty intense and hectic experience.
That would be fun enough, but you’ll also have to deal with enemy dogs and animals that will do their best to steal the food you are bouncing about for themselves. These enemies come in a few varieties that each come with unique traits. Thankfully that same vodka can be used to take out these baddies. Russian Subway Dogs is a game that isn’t afraid to throw everything at you and then some. Then there’s all manner of status effects you can suffer to up the difficulty.
The core bit of the game features a silly little story in between dozens of levels that are sure to challenge even the best players as the game uses a score-driven difficulty algorithm. You’ll certainly be doing quite a bit of yelling at the screen but it’s the sort of screaming you do when you’re having a great time. There is a surprising amount of freedom and you’ll definitely be finding new strategies as you keep coming back for more.
Russian Subway Dogs is a blast and isn’t afraid to play things for laughs. You are encouraged to experiment and try all sorts of new things as new enemies, food, and special event animals present themselves. A wild moose might be cool when it rushes and takes out the baddies on screen, but it’s even better when you learn you can vodka-bomb it, turning it into a fire plow that spits out steaks once done.
Then there’s the optional objectives that level throw your way that turn an already challenging game into a maddening experience. Imaging trying to stay alive and avoiding enemies while being tasked with sticking to only a vegetarian diet. Or try to enemies from eating any of your food or try to keep a certain animal alive, there are all sorts of extra objectives to take on. And you’ll want to as earning enough bonus bones will help you unlock the secret end station.
Mayhem is the name of the game and because score is what matters, finding new combinations and score multipliers keeps the game feeling fresh. It’s not the sort of game you’ll spend hours at a time with, but Russian Subway Dogs is the perfect game that you’ll always be able to boot up for a fun little break.
$15 does feel a bit of a steep asking price on the surface for an arcade-like title like this, but there is enough content here that you’ll be coming back enough times to make it just worth the asking price.
And I hope the game drops some additional DLC with new characters as unlocking the guest ones in the game gave me a lot of incentive to keep coming back to play far more than I intended.
Final Score:
3/5
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