Review: Double Pug Switch

Alright, alright, alright! (those who get that reference are looking forward to the 10^th of November. Please let us know on Twitter) Who is ready for a fantastic platformer that will get you edging over your couch as you have never before? Being upfront here, but I’m a filthy casual for the genre. I ain’t too good, but I give them my heart and soul! And every time I fail, I tend to laugh out loud, so they are a blast. But, is this new platformer named Double Pug Switch worthy of my recommendation? Has a Priori Digital finally made the cutest but intense platformer that isn’t stale? And can a single Pug conquer the cat multiverse?

What we liked!

• Dimension switching: During the game, you play as a double dimension Pug. You swap the color dimension by pushing the matching button on your controller. If you match the color, you can stand on them, but you can’t go through them. This is the whole idea. Honestly, this felt unique and challenging and got me into a lot of funky scenarios. The further you progress, the more complex the switching becomes. You even get portals that allow you to go in 4 dimensions at once! If that isn’t enough to tickle your fancy, I don’t know what is!
• Level of cuteness/Graphics: I mean, you play as a cute Pug Otis, and you fight a cute but evil super Cat. What is there not to like? That being said, the graphics feel simple but yet detailed enough. The map isn’t repeating itself, and the obstacles change, and tend to look just a little different, so that is quite a big win for me!
• Music: Double Pug Switch comes with different tunes for different levels! During boss fights, you get an intense song tailored towards the encounter. In contrast, you get calm yet hype-filling music during other levels. If you advance to a new area/leveling pack, you also get a different theme style (e.g., jungly). Which was a nice touch.
• Controls: Key-Bindings are well thought out. Simple but effective! You have 2 buttons: Jump (and hold jump to make a bigger/longer jump) and switch dimensions. Nothing more had to be added. They are on opposite sites of the controller, which makes it fun yet confusing. It’s hard to explain in a sentence, but let’s just say it feels right. Not overly complicated.
• Checkpoints: Every level is handcrafted and comes with a set of checkpoints. This is something I found a nice touch since I am just a big derp. I, for the life of me, can not first try platformer levels. I tend to fail 20+ times per level and have a moment where you are like: I DON’T KNOW WHAT I AM DOING, BUT I MADE IT, really seals the deal for me.
• Boss fights: What would a platformer be without a boss fight level? Am I right? Well, I was pleased to find out that Double Pug comes with some of the cutest boss scenes I have recently played! But don’t be mistaken, it’s an intense parkour challenge, without checkpoints! So you better have your try-hard pants on!

Somewhere between

• Loot/coins: While you platform your Pug to safety, you can collect coins and a purple currency. Both of these are used in the “hat store” to buy cosmetics for your lovely Pug. You can also buy powerups here. It’s just a shame that collecting coins is only suitable for a single achievement on Xbox live (complete a standard level while collecting all the coins) but has no further depth (e.g., Star ratings on level completions)

What we disliked

• Indication of levels: During my first playing moments of Double Pug, I found myself playing the game via Remoteplay during work breaks. When I came home, I pressed my resume. Yet it threw me back into the tutorial level. Not sure if that was just an issue with Remote play, or I didn’t play far enough to be saved or something (even though I cleared the tutorial). But if you want to see how far you got, you have to go back to the menu and select your level there. But the levels are only indicated by their name and not by some image showing you a level preview. This is something I missed.