Wild Dogs Review

Wild Dogs tells the story of a world under a frantic alien attack and you, the player, a deadly killing machine, is called upon to take the threat head on by hunting aliens around the world and save the humanity from certain doom. Are you up to the challenge?

Wild Dogs is a 2D run n’ gun action platformer that feels like a homage to Konami’s Contra series. Go from start to finish of each level while annihilating every enemy on your path to reach the level’s boss. On your way, you’ll pick up a variety of power-ups for your gun such as a spreadgun, flamethrower, boomerangs; among others. There’s also some vehicular mayhem as you’ll be able to drive a helicopter, planes or mechs.

Unlike Konami’s flagship series, Wild Dogs isn’t a one hit death scenario. You have a health bar that will allow you to sustain a bit of damage before dying. You’ll also find heart that will replenish your health. You can also carry two power-ups and swap in between them with the Y button. You can also use the R trigger to stay in place and fire in any of the 8 possible directions.

The game’s visual presentation is an homage to Nintendo’s portable juggernaut; the classic Game Boy. It features a monochrome 8-bit type of visuals. You can also switch color palette by pressing LB to change the visual. But don’t expect highly detailed characters, enemies and environments. It looks great for old school gamers, but younger gamers find not appreciate it as much. The soundtrack is fine, albeit it doesn’t match Contra’s classic sounds.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the gameplay of Wild Dogs, the issues stem from its unique Game Boy like visuals. While it’s a nice homage and throwback, the problem of having monochrome color palettes is that you’re limited in the shades of color you can use. There will be times where you’ll lose health due to cheap hits because the enemy projectiles is almost the same color as the background. Also the jumping feels off a bit; as if you’d have boots made of cement. There’s also a level similar to Battletoads’ Turbo Tunnel and it’s as infuriating as Rare’s incarnation.

Wild Dogs is a great, challenging, homage to the Contra/Probotector series. The game offers a fair and challenging experiences, bosses, while simplistic, are a hoot to fight. While the presentation can cause a bit of unfair hits due to the projectiles sometimes being the same color as the background, the action and gameplay variery makes up for it. If you’re looking for a fun, albeit familiar, experience, you can’t go wrong with Wild Dogs.