Doggy Don’t Care is not my personal favourite game of the year. In fact, there’s a good chance I would have moved on from it pretty quickly.
My daughters, on the other hand, absolutely love it.
And not just because the game has a dedicated “pee” button.
In a world full of family-friendly games competing for their attention, that says a lot. Move over, Yoshi.
In Doggy Don’t Care, you take control of a cheeky little pug named Charlie, who’s on a mission:
Create absolute chaos!
From the first level, you’re running around smashing things, making a big mess and collecting little dog treats.
Ride the robot vacuum, pee on it, throw a basketball through the back window, smash the TV, spill an entire canister of motor oil and walk it across the top of a car. The antics are cheeky and plentiful.
My daughter’s review (for the record)
“Who is going to clean all of this up!?”, my 11-year-old, Addison, asked as we proceeded to smash a dozen plates and the dining table into a thousand pieces.
Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree, but my kids might be onto something.
It’s not all without purpose, aside from the main objective of collecting all the treats, Charlie must collect badges from his bird friends by completing naughty tasks.
There’s a large list of cheeky activities to complete before moving onto the next level, with clues available by chatting to the bird who brought Charlie to the location. My stubbornness prevailed as I refused to receive any clues during my playthrough.
The images on the badges should provide enough of an idea of what you need to do next. That said, I wish there were some more grandiose activities.
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There’s a big, beautiful world out there!
There are four main levels: the house, farm, office and museum. I’d say there’s up to an hour of activities in each one, also broken up by a quirky dream sequences.
I feel the dream sequences weren’t needed, it seemed like an attempt at developing a greater narrative, though the narrative of a cheeky dog smashing up a house already sat fine with me.
It was as if the dog is ultimately lonely and longs for greater connection with its “hooman”. The more I read into it, the sadder it becomes really. He’s only doing these things because he wants attention.
All this chaos — he just wants someone to play with him
The later levels offered some greater variety in what little Charlie was capable of. Tasks in the Museum in particular had a lot more depth to them than previous levels.
Level layouts almost remind me of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Rugrats on PS1, or something slightly Toy Story-esque. That said, the levels feel a little bit empty; the world is a lot bigger when you’re a tiny pug.
Aside from smashing a back window into the yard and a bull ploughing through a greenhouse, there wasn’t really a big “new area” moment. Unless there’s a secret area that I may have missed?
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Doggy DO Care: The Dev Really Cares About This Game
Visually, the game is rather simple. That’s not to say it’s ineffective. It’s something straight out of a cartoon, only slightly cursed…
Some of the more detailed textures in the game were child’s drawings throughout the kitchen area of the house — a nice touch by the dev. I appreciated all the different costumes on offer. And obviously the giraffe got a decent run.
And after it’s all said and done, the game offers a “New Game+”. Which doesn’t really have anything fresh, aside from the broken TV sitting by the front door — it’s a nice touch. You are, however, able to play with all of your costumes unlocked.
I hope to see this one hit the Switch store soon. It’s perfect for handheld, running smoothly across both the ASUS ROG Ally X and desktop with a controller. I also had no major graphical issues or glitches — Charlie has polished the bowl clean!
Should you play Doggy Don’t Care?
Doggy Don’t Care is a joyful little indie title. Wreaking havoc as a pug with separation issues has never been so fun. While I didn’t find it as exciting as “going for walkies”, there’s more than enough here to keep the kids busy.
It would be great to have a level select mode. My kids just wanted to return to the farm and jump on top of the chickens. I’d also love to see some season content make its way into the game… Christmas level, anyone?
If you’re looking for a game that will sustain a few laughs over the course of a couple of hours, Doggy Don’t Care delivers.
Quest Daily scores Doggy Don’t Care:
7/10
(Addison gives it a 10/10)
Doggy Don’t Care is coming to PC on September 24th.
Early access to Doggy Don’t Care was provided by the publisher.
