Arkan: The Dog Adventurer is a platformer with a mix of arkanoid, which is a block breaker arcade game from 1986. This game was developed by Madao Studio, and published by Sometimes You. It features around 60 levels and three locations to walk through, players will be jumping, moving around, hitting the ball, smashing bricks, attacking enemies, and dodging enemies in this super fun and enjoyable game. This game also features old school retro graphics and music.
The game features three difficulty mode that players can choose from; from easy, normal, to hardcore; which will change how the enemies will interact with players in the game rather than changing the levels in the game. I would recommend players to start on the easy mode to learn the ropes.
In order to progress in the game, players will have to defeat all enemies in each level while hitting the yellow ball to break each brick or barrier to get to the enemy; which may sound easy at first, but it is not, because the enemies will be throwing all kind of counter attacks at player, therefore, players will need to dodge those attacks.
The game also gets harder and harder as you progress, which keeps the game challenging and interesting for the most part. As you progress in the game, you gain new abilities to that can be helpful as it becomes more difficult. Another note is, if you die in the game, you will have to start all over again; so you want to pay close attention to your health gauge to see how many more hits you can take.
The ball that you are hitting to break the blocks and eventually defeat the enemies, gets stronger as progress, however, when it misses, it loses force, and the ball gets weaker; you want to try to aim the ball towards the blocks and the enemies. In addition, when you advance in the game, you will gain abilities beyond jumping and double jumping, such as teleportation and slowing down of time.
There are 180 stars to collect in the game. You earn stars for each game completed, and it is with these stars that you get the ability to open up new stages, so it is very important to earn as many stars as you can to make this possible.
What stood out to me is that, each level features different kinds of enemies and a different scenery. Overall, I’ll give this game a 7 out of 10 because I found it to be a little repetitive. Even though it offers great variety in enemies, scenery, and abilities, at the end of the day, the gameplay wasn’t that much different in each stage. I did the teleportation ability in the game, as it made it easier to play it when it became challenging, it’s just not a 10 in my opinion.
A code of the game was provided to me by the developer for review purposes only. Arkan: The Dog Adventurer is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch platform.
Space Ogres 