From: mfrose@ais.org (Martin Rose)
Subject: Re: Wonder Dog [SEGA CD]
Organization: UMCC
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 21:16:45 GMT

In article <1hnbnbINN7jv@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> aa792@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Nick Poulos) writes:
>
>I went to Babbages Saturday and they said they got in and sold out
>this SEGA CD already. Has anybody tried Wonder Dog? Is it as good as the
>hype?

Heh...tell me about it.  The local EB didn't have any left, and I got the
very last copy at the Cabbage's right across the way.  Only the seventh game
I've bought the last in the store of in my life. B)

WONDER DOG is definitely a platform game, falling well into the TDC category
(Too Damn Cute).  The game was programmed by Core Design Group, the same
team that created Chuck Rock.  Like CR, WD is littered with those hilarious
cartoon sound effects.  The BGM is pulled entirely from the CD, and the
intro is a full-screen animated cartoon which should be watched in its
entirety at least once.

Graphics and visual effects are above average, if a little cluttered.  Enemy
animation is good, bosses (ack ack ack) are large, mobile and amusing,
backgrounds have plenty of color and parallax, and foregrounds contain
plenty of distracting objects, some of which can be interacted with, others
which hide enemies who pop out as you go by.  I have yet to see any
gratuitous use of scaling/rotation in this game, but I may just not be
paying attention.

But you don't give a rip about any of that; you want to know about the GAME.
Right?  Right. :)

Well, the start-up difficulty is no great shakes.  Bunny Hop Meadow (the
first level, composed of three zones) exists to help you get the hang of
controlling WD, with running jumps, glides and slides.  There is a LOT of
hidden stuff to find, including holes you dig into the ground, invisible
platforms, and bonus stages you enter by walking on the correct spot on the
screen.  Levels have no time limit, so you can explore at your leisure.
End-of-level bosses aren't very difficult, though some levels make up for
that deficiency.  I'm on Planet Wierd and having a rough time of it.

There are three sore points in this game.  Firstly, the worst character
animation in the game belongs to WD himself.  On the screen, he appears to
always occupy the dimensions of a square box, filling it at all times,
making him rather nondescript to the game-player's eye.  When he runs, his
feet don't move nearly fast enough to maintain his speed, so I guess he's
doing the Wonder Dog Shuffle.  After playing Sonic for a while, this gets to
be a little annoying, as Sonic's feet always look like they're moving fast
enough.

Secondly, there's the display.  More often than I'd like, you are literally
taking leaps of faith because you just can't see where you're supposed to be
landing yet.  That's not so bad in and of itself -- when such a jump is
needed, the landing platform is more than large enough to accommodate an
overzealous glide.  The real problem comes when the platform is small and
nearby.  See, part of your display is a picture of WD's face at the bottom
center, which tells you how healthy you are (WD dies after three hits).
This display always appears directly beneath you, so you can't see if you
have something to land on or not, as it's actually somewhat larger than your
on-screen character.  What a nuisance.

Thirdly, control has a couple rough edges.  The starting set-up is not RoS
Compliant, though that's easy enough to fix in the Options/Control screen.
WD fires little star-shots (up to four on-screen at a time), whose angle of
fire is controlled by how long the fire button is held before releasing.
Yes, it's an R-Type firing scheme.  Unfortunately, the speed at which the
angle adjusts makes firing straight ahead quite difficult.  (The
over-reaction of the controls is also no minor headache while navigating the
menus while setting up the game.)

Despite all gripes, though, it's a solid, if standard, game.  Unless I'm
mistaken, this is precisely what the Sega CD's major detractors have been
screaming for all this time. >:-)  Besides, the opening monologue may be
corny, but its acting is far superior to Prince of Persia's cheesy intro. B)

I give it two thumbs.  (Not up or down; they're just there.  I'm still
working on the game.)
-- 
  PCHammer:  Lieutenant, About-to-Die Police (Martin Rose) - mfrose@ais.org
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 "Think of it, Batman; to never again walk on a summer's day with a hot wind
    in your face and a warm hand to hold.  Oh, yes -- I'd KILL for that."