Turbo Pug Review

Turbo Pug is an endless runner game in which you play as a pug. That is endlessly running on a random procedurally generated level. Your job as the player is to ensure that your pug is safe on its adventure. You make the journey safe by jumping over obstacles that are placed throughout the levels.

Regarding the design of the game on paper it seems to be a simple enough concept to understand. Since all you have to do is watch the pug and when you see anything harmful just jump over it. While at the same time collecting cartoon pug faces to boost your score until you fail to dodge an obstacle.

However there is one major flaw with the design of the game. This is due to the fact that everything is randomly generated. Whilst having randomly generated tracks is generally a good thing for this game. Primarily, the randomly generated tracks will provide players with different paths to run on. Fundamentally this is also the main technical downfall of the game as there is a need to time jumps over obstacles. The issue is that if you jump over one object you could quite easily land on another object. In this game there is no set rhythm of jumping over obstacles as such. Consequently as a result of this it is down to luck on whether you can dodge the next obstacle or not.

The weather in game can be problematic. Take the night time as an example the lighting becomes darker which is cool. But for some people it could possibly stop them from seeing obstacles (particularly the spikes) which sometimes can blend in. However during the day time it is very bright and you can easily see what are to avoid. There is also the lightning effect which when it happens will make the screen flash white. At the same time it will also stop your pug from jumping over any obstacles. This in some instances will result in ending your game. Although this is dependent on what is in front of you. As the lightning has happened a few times before I need to jump over an obstacle.

Visually however, whilst I do think that the game is aesthetically appealing. As it has charm of appearing to be a retro game by using a 16 bit art style. On top that the colour scheme used in game is bright and cheerful. The colours and graphic style used are reminiscent of the graphics of games that one could find back in the early 90’s. It does make this game look like a retro game.

But there is some poor design choices with the game as some of the obstacles seen in game are out of place. Considering that this game uses various assets such as lava pits and skeletons. The mix and match of asset styles is also present in some of the unlockable items. Whilst there is plenty of different items that a pug can wear. There are some quite bizarre choices that are available in the game such as being able to play as a penguin and a pug that poops rainbows when it walks.

Overall I do think that you should avoid Turbo Pug. Purely because this game essentially is your average runner game that you pay for. Frankly there are plenty of likeminded games available for tablets or mobile phones that are free. The only real selling point of Turbo Pug is the fact that the game has pugs in it.

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