Arkan: The Dog Adventurer | Xbox Review

June 30, 2021 Chris Owens

Arkan: The Dog Adventurer is a game presented in a classic pixelated layout that combines basic platforming with brick-busting mechanics made popular in the early classic console days. Brought to you by Madao Studio, you play as Arkan, a….well….dog adventurer. He has the ability to manipulate a mystical projectile to defeat enemies of varying size, power, and their own projectile use, who do so behind a variety of bustable objects that Arkan must get around and through to succeed in his journeys. Doing so with success, the player is rewarded on a 3-star completion system that allows for further progress.

A Dog’s Tale

The game starts out very slowly with few enemies and basic brick layouts to allow for the mechanics to become understandable for the player. However, this proves to be very slow as the game allows for few insights on how to move around and take full advantage of Arkan’s attack prowess. The game mainly moves around with the analog stick for just about everything including jumping and, in some cases, double jumping along with the aiming for your projectile. Any button play is involved with the actual firing of the projectile, hitting it on a return for more power and to readjust the movement angle. Arkan will not be able to do this in all areas of the playing field as a forcefield, seen on the screen when the player moves too far forward, will block Arkan’s advances only being able to rely on his projectile to get the job done.

One of the cooler moves is if things get too hairy, Arkan can teleport to another area of the field and bring everything to a crawl with slow motion. This mechanic will come in handy as the game ramps things up. More and more enemies appear in all areas of the screen and fire back with projectiles such as homing shots, large area filling death portals that will freeze you in your tracks, and even lasers that come across the entire screen. The areas where these battles take place also vary with different platforms and pitfalls which will constantly change the player’s strategy to move forward and, in many cases, stay alive. Arkan has a 5-shot health meter and he will need every one of them to conquer the challenges in this game.

Arkan: The Dog Adventurer Final Verdict

Overall, the game really doesn’t have a story but has dozens of challenging puzzles of enemies of varying skills and bricks of varying strength with a control scheme that will be frustrating to learn. When things get crazy, the player will hone their subconscious skills to advance in the challenges put forth to them. For $4.99, it’s a good game for that “get lost in the challenge” quick fix many gamers need.

This review is based on an Xbox copy of Arkan: The Dog Adventurer provided by Sometimes You for coverage purposes. It is also available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and PC.