Dog Man: Mission Impawsible Review

After the roaring success of the Dog Man movie at the box office and seeing it with my seven year old son recently, I knew I had to grab this game. Dog Man: Mission Impawsible focuses on the main characters from the popular book series which have been catapulted to further success in the latest film on the big screen. For this review myself and my son played through its entirety together as his patience for platformers doesn’t always last long. If it isn’t Fortnite or Roblox, then sometimes another experience has to really grab him to keep him playing.

It’s A Dog Man World

The premise is quite simple in Dog Man: Mission Impawsible and that is to traverse through the levels and aquire as many collectibles and secrets as you can. The ideology is akin to the Mario and Sonic titles in how it plays but has its own clever approach of switching between characters to perform specific tasks. Characters can also aquire extra powers and buffs along the way.

Dog Man himself can reach most platforms within reach and also dig underground. 80-HD which is the mech like structure, can be used to elevate yourself for harder to reach platforms whereas Lil Petey uses their small frame to get into the tight spaces and smaller areas. There are dog bones scattered throughout the levels and collecting all of these will present you with a shield which helps towards unlocking further stages. There are 50 levels so quite a lot to work through for the completionists out there. Boss fights are present throughout the game but they never pose too much of a challenge sadly, but are tough enough for the kids to take on.

Visuals & Audio

Visually Dog Man: Mission Impawsible does a great job of bringing the great artwork from the comic books to life here. Some of the levels and backdrops do become rather reptitive and samey over time though. It also isn’t long before the clever character swapping animations goes down that road as well.

I was constantly telling myself it all feels a little basic, whilst my son absolutely loved the fact the characters he had been drawing himself earlier in the day is what he can play as. This is what I feel they went for overall, simplistic design and mechanics to appeal to the target audience. The sound design is a little lacklustre with minimal audio in effects but fairly decent soundtrack.

Final Thoughts

For those who have never heard or engaged with anything Dog Man related, you may find this just an average platformer. It very much is just that when it comes to how it feels to play. Having watched the movie I did feel like I understood the mechanics better and why the characters intertwine within levels to work with certain elements. It is a faithful nod to the brilliant cartoon design of the books, a few of which I have purchased for my Dog Man obsessed little lad. If you’re after a family friendly platforming title that even smaller children can enjoy, then Dog Man is worth your time. Those who enjoy a challenge however, may find this a little on the easy side.