Teaching an Old Classic New Tricks

Arkan: The Dog Adventurer is a puzzle game with the unique addition of a “Arkanoid” system, or “Breakout” if you’re more familiar with that one. It was Developed and Published by Sometimes You for the Nintendo Switch. It is also available on PC, PS4/5, and Xbox One.

Do you ever just need a few minutes to yourself and want to throw on a game that you don’t really have to invest yourself in narratively? This game is perfect for that!

You are Arkan, the dogo adventurer who enjoys playing fetch by tossing a mystical ball into the faces of its enemies. The goal is to collect as many stars as you can and defeat every enemy on the selected stage. Standing between Arkan and the numerous bad buys and stars are various blocks of differing material. Arkan must use the aforementioned ball to break these up before he can directly attack the enemies or break the stars. As you progress each level increases in difficulty adding more complex block patters, new enemies with new attacks, or even environmental hazards like pitfalls.

The gameplay, although slow in the beginning, became addicting. I played the old breakout Tiger handhelds when I was younger, and this game brings back a good sense of nostalgia while staying true to what it wants to be. Arkan is able to move around about 75% of the play area, with the other 25% reserved for enemies and protected by a barrier that only projectiles can pass through. Once launched, Arkan can control the direction of the ball with the right stick and must bat it back into the blocks and enemies with his staff. The impact area of his staff is fairly large and created almost a vacuum type effect of pulling the ball in and redirecting it. This felt absolutely spectacular, especially while doing so in midair.

This brings me to my one complaint in the gameplay department: there is no dedicated jump button. To jump / double jump you have to press up on the control stick, and during frantic battles I found that this hurt my ability to control Arkan. I would have much rather had a dedicated jump button (Even a shoulder button) that I could have used.

There are three main areas that Arkan can explore (Grassland, Desert, and Castle) and each introduces new enemies and re-skinned versions of older enemies. The variety of enemies helps the game from becoming too stale too early by constantly throwing out newer dangers in each world. This doesn’t mean that the game does not get stale though. Beginning and Ending levels of a stage generally hold the most surprising and challenging of the layouts, but tend to be less interesting in the inner sections.

Arkan the Dog Adventurer is a fun game, and if you’re looking for an arcade / quick game it would definitely be worth checking out. I can definitely see myself coming back to this for a few quick stages every once in a while.