Review: Double Pug Switch – PS4

Double Pug Switch is not an easy game, even if it is easy on the eye. The visuals are nice and friendly but don’t let the cutesy aesthetic fool you; this game will have you pulling hair out of your ears before too long. If you have hair in your ears. Otherwise, feel free to pull it off your head.
At its core, Double Pug Switch is a side-scrolling auto-runner with your only control being jump or switch dimensions, and that’s it. The little dog you play as, Otis, automatically runs from one side of the screen to the other. He’s ended up in an alternate dimension due to an accident in the lab caused by a naughty cat. It’s silly and the story is nothing but a device to get you into this weird world of jumping, spikes, death falls, and dimension shifting.

Otis now has a twin in this other existence, and you can switch to him by pressing the circle button. As you’re running from left to right you’ll need to avoid obstacles and jump onto platforms, but you’ll also need to switch dimensions to avoid some of the hazards. Switching can open the pathway and remove obstacles, but it can also introduce new ones. Quick switching is required and even on the early levels, you’re challenged to switch and jump at the same time, and often in quick succession. It’s tricky but doable, but I did hit my limit very early on.
I’m not a patient man and I’m known for throwing controllers over the balcony in a fit of rage. That didn’t happen this time, but I got close. The difficulty is way off, and I’d have appreciated a bit more time to ease into the game. There are a couple of tutorials to get you familiar with the basic controls, but you don’t really get much time to practice. Instead, you learn on the job and suffer in the process.
It doesn’t help that the jumping and the general animation is quite stiff and that Otis runs quite fast. It makes for a lot of frustration and far too many deaths that feel cheap. Maybe it’s a way to extend the playtime? Maybe, but not for me. Instead, it turned me away and led to this review. This ain’t a friendly pooch.

Double Pug Switch PS4 Review

• 4/10
  Overall - Bad - 4/10

4/10

Summary

Double Pug Switch is a nice idea tied to poor execution. It’s frustratingly difficult and the game makes it far to easy to put the controller down and do just about anything other than play it.