Game Thoughts - Doronko Wanko by Bandai Namco Studios (published by Phoenixx)

Note: I'm not really putting anything up here lol so if you want to take a look at the game in all its cuteness, you can go to its Steam page.

I've seen some bits and pieces of people playing this and was really curious as to how it all goes. And so, I got it and played it. I wanted to record, but since it was too strong for the computer and it started lagging, I decided not to record it anymore.

What's It About?

The gist of all of it is that most of the family went out for something, and you, the pomeranian pupper, are now free to lay waste to the house (or just muddy it up Splatoon-style). Spread the mud that you got from outside the house, and splash it all on the interior to reveal hidden paintings and open the door to the "good-smelling room".

Writing

There is a story, somewhat, but there aren't really any words used for it in the game itself. However, they do show it through the illustrations in the intro and the ending scenes, and it's fairly understandable even if the characters don't say anything. It's all in the actions and gestures.

Art

I would say that the art in general has that cozy, warm vibe and a clean Japanese aesthetic (at least for the drawings and the character designs). Odd to say for a game where you're supposed to mess things up, but there.

I find it nice that the house interior looks mostly clean and modern, yet it's not to the point that it's cold and utterly sanitized. You know that there are people in there, or at least people who have moved in there, as one can see from, say, the boxes still lying around, stuff from what seems to have been a party, and the kids' play area having toys and games all over.

I also like that the environment is very open and inviting for exploration. Sure, the layout seems a little confusing, having multiple ways of going to some areas to the point that you sometimes don't know if you're down or up, but I think that's part of the charm.

Audio

This is what got me playing when I first opened the game to test it out for OBS (but I never really got to record due to my laptop not cutting it). The main menu music is just so upbeat and cute!

The music that plays in the game itself is pretty calm in comparison, but that just helps give that cozy mood. Of course, there are some sound effects that break that, including the money sounds, a few explosions, and cannon fire. But it's not bad, given the context that you're still in a silly game.

Gameplay

So, as described earlier, you play as a family's dog, a pomeranian. Your goal is to run around, jump, roll in mud, and splash mud all over the house.

Well, actually the goal is to open a door to a certain room, and to do that, you need to uncover 12 hidden paintings/icons all over the house. Aaaaand you do that by getting the house dirty, as the mud reveals those hidden objects.

The basic move that you can do is to roll around in mud and then splash where you want to using the mouse buttons. But you can also knock down certain items to spill their contents (as with the soda cans and wine bottles), wear certain hats that shoot mud, or interact with certain objects that can help you spread existing mud (as in the case of the malfunctioning roombas). There's a lot of ways that you can get the house dirty, and racking up damages lets you access these means.

It starts a little slow, since your basic splash doesn't really have that much range, but it picks up once you unlock more stuff and explore the house. Also, while it might look like you need to watch out for the only human in the house, you don't need to worry about her. She is apparently way too tired and sleepy to care, so she will just move between areas. You really are free to just mess everything up and you can get away with it cause you're a cute doggo.

Finding the icons isn't too hard, especially since the game provides visual cues, such as sparkly spots and glowing paw print trails. But really, though, you might as well just splash mud on every surface you find and eventually you'll get everything. And you'll get a lot of badges in the process too.

It's pretty amusing that at the end, you also get to splash mud on the credits. (It took me until halfway through that you could still move the doggo and make things "dirty" in order to reveal the words more clearly.)

After the credits, the game tells you that something new appears, but I didn't really bother finishing a second playthrough once I found that it's mostly the same thing, but with all the items you got available to you. If you're a completionist and you want all the badges, I'm not gonna stop you, but in my opinion, it's mostly a one and done game. It's cute, yes, but replay value isn't really high for me.

By the way, I have to warn you that the game is in Japanese by default, so you would have to change the text to English if you're not familiar with the language. Here is a short visual guide you can follow in case you need help:

Also, if you're planning on streaming or making videos on it, you might want to take a look at their guidelines on the store page. (People have been saying that it's not enforceable in the US because of Fair Use, but there, just a heads-up.)

Overall

It's a short and cute game where you can just let loose and create a mess. Great to try if you like dogs, like these kinds of "destruction simulation" games, or if you're an achievement hunter. Or all three.

You can get it for free on Steam.