Whenever I go to Walmart, I always walk through the two book and magazine aisles to see if there’s anything new or anything I want. Each time, I notice vibrantly drawn and colourful kids’ books bearing the name Dog Man. However, I knew nothing about the series itself, or anything it’s spawned, until I played the latest game based on it; that being Dog Man: Bark in Action. Even after seeing its credits roll, and playing through the final world that unlocks after they do, I still don’t feel like I know much of anything about it. That’s okay, too.
According to research I’ve just done, Dog Man is the brainchild of Dav Pilkey, and is a spinoff of his Captain Underpants series. That’s another kids’ book and presumably cartoon series I’ve heard of, but know nothing about. I’m an old man, or it at least feels that way.
Wikipedia says that Dog Man was created by a surgery that fused an injured policeman and his dog together. He has friends and allies (a kitten named Lil’ Petey and a robot called 80-HD), and they form the Supa Buddies as a combined trio. That’s important to know when it comes to this game, and I’ll explain why.
Dog Man: Bark in Action is a 2D platformer based on the fifteen books, movie, etc. that make up this popular intellectual property. It’s a follow-up to another game that came out a couple of years ago. I remember when it did, but never played it. As such, I cannot compare the two.
This Super Mario Bros. inspired campaign begins as a strange fog rolls into town. The police chief sends the day shift out to investigate, and then follows that up by sending the two, donut eating, members of the night shift out too. He then realizes that he’s all alone, nothing has happened and the fog is still there, so he calls Dog Man. He and his Supa Buddies come to the rescue, and go out to investigate what is going on, despite not being meteorologists.
It’s discovered that a mad scientist is to blame for some of the things going on. He’s created a screen that hypnotizes everyone, including numerous (what I assume to be) familiar characters from the books. They act as bosses, of which there are quite a few. There are, I believe, six different worlds, and each one has two bosses. Part-way through each world there’s a mini-boss, and then there’s a ‘final’ boss at the end of their numerous stages.
The regions are comprised of themed environments, like the city, a lab, different prisons, a volcano and also a surprise outer space one. They all contain approximately ten stages, including bosses.
Playing Dog Man: Barn in Action involves switching between the three Supa Buddies and using their different abilities to get from the start to the finish, where a news crew is always waiting. Dog Man can throw bones, and later earns the ability to do a double jump using nunchucks; meanwhile, 80-HD has a spring loaded boxing glove, and can use a watering can to make plants grow into platforms or create moving platforms in lava, and it can also use magnets to move crates or get over spikes. Lil’ Petey, then, is best for jumping in confined spaces (due to his smaller size), and can scratch enemies. He can also light vines and fuses on fire, or use a shrinking ray on things. These abilities aren’t all available from the start, though. Players will be tasked with finding gears in enclosed areas of certain stages, at which point they’re unlocked, on a one-by-one basis. These aren’t collectibles, either; it’s all story based and is required.
The core of the game is pretty traditional 2D platforming, and it feels and works pretty well. Players will avoid spikes, move between lasers, deal with different types of enemies, break boxes, move crates to get to higher areas, flip switches and solve basic environmental puzzles through this. That will allow them to get from point A to point B. If you’ve played a 2D platformer, you won’t be surprised by any of it. This game does things well, but it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and its traditional stages can get repetitive after a while.
Each level contains four odd-looking badges to collect, and each world has a total of forty of them. Some stages also contain a pet dog to save. Doing so can help one unlock all of the game’s comic and illustration pages.
There are also tadpoles to find, and lots and lots of balls of yarn to pick up; a lot of which are slightly hidden. Bones are the main pickup type, though, and collecting enough of them will allow one to turn into a more powerful robot for a limited time. This is mostly unnecessary though, as the game is easy, and its mechanics don’t provide too much of a boost. Besides, if you die a couple of times in one area, the game offers an assist mode, which I didn’t take advantage of.
The yarn that is collected can be used to unlock new costumes for each of the three playable characters. You’ll have to essentially find their schematics though, by completing challenges (the type that are shown on options screens and want you to do this or that, or a collect a certain amount of something.) Each character has maybe five different costumes, and they’re pretty good.
There’s one other aspect of this game, which isn’t nearly as convoluted as my review may be making it sound. This is a pretty straightforward and easy platformer that appeals to a younger audience, but is playable for all. I just need to explain every facet of it.
That other aspect involves Dog Man’s friends, and his phone. You see, one can free around ten hypnotized friends along the way, and can later call on them for assistance, provided they’ve picked up some battery pickups. One allows you to break walls to get at secrets; another hacks computers to remove barriers; a winged friend can fly the Supa Buddies across horizontal gaps; a robot can fly upwards and break any barriers in its way; one friend can refill the player’s hearts; one more can make it easier to collect things, and yet another can damage nearby enemies. I only really bothered with a few of them (the ones that helped me break walls or fly somewhere), but found 8/10 of them. It seems that I somehow missed finding the final two, in outer space, but I was tired and it didn’t matter anyway.
The stages tend to be pretty formulaic, and get repetitive, but they aren’t poorly designed. The bosses are more creative, and some of them look pretty intimidating. However, they’re almost all incredibly easy, to the point where one can essentially just spam the attack button to throw bones at, and defeat them. This is a game aimed at a younger audience, though. Then again, it doesn’t lessen itself by presenting stages that are so simple one could almost beat them blindfolded. Thought, details and a bit of challenge were put into this thing; especially when it came to the collectibles.
Before we move on: I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that each world has one black and white time trial stage. The goal is to get through the level, while collecting all of its bone pickups as quickly as possible. Like the boss battles, which base your badge award on how many hits you took, these base it on how quick you were.
Those who are familiar with Dog Man will recognize its creator’s unique art style, which is well presented herein. The game has a unique visual style, and it all looks good. Its animations are good, and seem true to the source.
There are occasional animated cutscenes, but a lot of the storytelling is done through comic panels and dialogue bubbles. The story itself is kind of messy and all over the place, but it’s not a big deal.
Everything was good until I got to the volcano region, and thought I was noticing a bit of lag from time to time. From then on, it was something I’d notice. For the most part, the gameplay was fluid and enjoyable, as well as accessible, but these framerate hitches were both odd and noticeable. This isn’t a demanding game, from a visual standpoint, so I don’t know why it’s there.
The audio, on the other hand, is pretty basic and just fine. Nothing about it stood out to me. I only occasionally noticed the music. It all does the job though, and there’s nothing bad about it.
Overall, Dog Man: Bark in Action is a pretty good, competent and (seemingly) true to source licensed game. As someone without any experience with its source, and who happens to be older than its target audience, I enjoyed my six or so hours with this game. It’s a solid game, but has an odd frame rate issue, gets repetitive and doesn’t really offer much that’s unique. Still, fans of the genre and the books should enjoy it, as I did.
Note: This game seems to have some sort of co-op, but we couldn’t try it.
This review is based on the XBOX Series X version of the game, which we were provided with.