Double Pug Switch
The Polygon Loft’s Double Pug Switch has you play as a Pug called Otis who, along with an evil cat named Whiskers, has been sucked into a dimensional portal. This rift was caused by the aforementioned Whiskers, after knocking over some of your scientist owner’s experiments. Cats, eh? So now you have to figure out how to get back home!
DPS plays like a runner, with various level-altering abilities to zap instantly between dimensions. This will allow you to sort-of phase through pillars that would have otherwise blocked your path, as well as avoid spikes that spell impending doom for your little pug. Otis can jump as well as shift between dimensions, and as he just keeps running - you’ll have to pay attention. Running and jumping from platform to platform, I found the game to be fairly straightforward, but frustrating at the same time.
Controlling Otis seems simple, with nothing required but a button press to jump or change dimension, but in actual fact it can be quite the challenge. Holding the jump button will allow for a longer jump, and sometimes that will lead to disaster. Mistiming a jump, or letting go of the button a millisecond too soon and you’ll find yourself crashing into the edge of a platform. Possibly the hardest part is keeping your mind focused on when to switch to the other dimension, thankfully, little Otis changes between a fawn and a black Pug to make it a bit more obvious when you’ve switched. The movement sadly feels quite unsatisfying - and whether that is the fault of the game or the player (cough, me) it’s hard to tell. But after getting the kids to join in and watching them almost turn purple with rage, I think I’ve realised where the problem lies (cough, not me!).
The art style is cute and whimsical, with a really nice colour scheme. The characters and cut scene art really started the game off strong, but it quickly fell down once in the actual levels. Sadly the level design leaves a lot to be desired - platforms are bog standard boxes, and background scenery mostly amounts to no more than flat shapes and patterns. There are a lot of promising elements at play here, as the cutscenes are well done and the ability to collect coins to unlock various little hats for Otis add extra personality to the game, but aside from those the game just feels like it has something missing.
With 32 levels across 4 different dimensions, and a collection of 40 hats to unlock - there’s a decent amount of content to come back for, and seeing the different power ups as you progress (such as the ability to shrink into a teeny tiny pug!) can keep things feeling a bit more fresh. It is definitely a frustrating game, but in that way that most runners tend to be: fail at a particular bit, tell yourself you’ll do it right next time and then stress-fail repeatedly after that. So in a way, it’s definitely got an addictive quality to it!
Releasing on October 22nd 2020 on Xbox One at the price of £6.99 (as well as PS4, Switch, PC, Android and iOS), it’s a cheap enough game if you’re looking for something to pass the time. The difficulty of some levels may be off-putting to kids, but this definitely feels like a game geared more towards them than adults. So if you’ve got any kids who like a challenge, this might be one for them! It has an addictive element that makes you want to just keep trying, and whilst it is frustrating to get to grips with - once you’re there, it’s actually quite easy to sink a chunk of time into as you try to power your way through the levels.
In the end, we decided to give Double Pug Switch the Collecting Asylum rating of 6/10.
Have you played Double Pug Switch yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to aPriori Digital for the Double Pug Switch Xbox One review code!
