By Don Robbins
Prepare to die on a continual basis as you play the crushingly difficult action-platformer Double Pug Switch.
This single-player Nintendo Switch game demands that you time your jumps with the A button perfectly, or you will instantly perish. In this title, you play as an adorable pug dog named Otis, the canine companion of a woman who is a scientist named the Professor. During the opening cut scene, a naughty cat called Whiskers knocks over some vials of liquid, sucking the animals into an alternate universe. Thereafter, as Otis, you will have to jump and “dimension switch” by pressing the B button (which I found out through trial and error) to scurry after Whiskers and save him.
I enjoyed the animation-inspired graphics of the opening cut scene and the minimalistic look of the level design is also attractive, but I found the gameplay disappointing because I could not move my character left or come to a complete stop, to time my jumps to my satisfaction. Meanwhile, there are many obstacles that cause your death, from spikes in the road, to invisible platform girders that you must reach by button-timed dimension switching actions while simultaneously jumping. After intense quick-reaction play sessions of about a half-hour each, I felt like I had developed a slight headache. Those gamers though who feel that other Mario-style platforming runner games are too easy might enjoy Double Pug Switch, however. In addition, when you do eventually conquer a level, you will definitely feel a sense of accomplishment.
There are some aspects of Double Pug Switch that I appreciated seeing, among them the fact that the game automatically saves your data at certain points, including after you complete the initial tutorial. Thereafter, you pick up where you left off by choosing “retry checkpoint” or “retry level” in the menu. Fans of customization also have something to “doggy drool” over and look forward to, because you can unlock cute goofy hats for Otis to wear by collecting coins. The soundtrack music accompanying the game also sounds quite energetic, matching the adrenaline rush of this title. The game also collects your statistics to review, including the total distance of your run, your total jumps, total fails, the number of your dimension switches and more.
Double Pug Switch, which bites hard with its challenging gameplay, earns a score of 4.9 out of 10. Thank you to Publisher/Developer Apriori Digital for the review code.
