REVIEW: Double Pug Switch on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Double Pug Switch may very well be the hardest game I have ever played. As the official blurb for this game states "prepare to fail".

This is a side scrolling 2D precision platformer. And your character is a Pug called Otis. The general story is that there was an accident in your owner's (The Professor) lab, and you and a cat called Whiskers have been sucked into an alternative dimension. Your job is to find Whiskers and save him, mainly from himself.

So as I mentioned earlier this is a precision platformer, and as such you only control two aspects of your character, when he jumps and when he swaps to another dimension. This means that as soon as a level starts your pug is running, and as he runs you have to make sure he jumps to avoid obstacles or else he dies, but sometimes there is no where to go, so you press another button and you change to a slightly different dimension whereby some platforms exist in both dimensions but some only exist in one or the other. 

I know it sounds a bit confusing but it really isn't. You only have to worry about pressing two buttons. And as I said earlier, prepare to fail. You will die a lot. In fact that is in many ways part of the game, the action is so fast that sometimes you need to die a few times, just so you learn the timing to get past the level. And all the while you will be trying to pick up gold coins.

And just when you think you get the hang of things you will pick up a jump boost that hurtles you up high and far, or perhaps a speed up boost making everything even harder, and just when things couldn't get any crazier, you will pick up a miniaturization boost and suddenly you are teeny tiny.

There are 4 different "universes" with 8 levels in each one, as you play you collect coins that allow you to buy hats for your Pug. There are 40 different hats to unlock.

And of course you will end up having to try to get past Whiskers in the "boss battles".

The Good

The graphics are cute, the controls are simple, this is one of those games you can just pick up and play, and where as you may have spent an hour stuck on a level the day before, you will pick it up and pass the same level first time. It's one of those types of games.

The Bad

Not sure if it can be classed as a bad thing when it is part of the game, but this game is tough, and it is frustrating, but with that does come a feeling of accomplishment when you finally pass a level.

Summary

A nice little, simple, clean platformer, that will make you pull your hair out in frustration, but you will keep coming back over and over to try to beat it.

I score this game 8/10

Out on all formats on 22nd October.