In the early 90s, when Taiwanese clones of the Japanese console Nintendo Femidom flooded our country, and yellow pirated cartridges began to be sold on the markets, domestic gamers first joined Japanese video games.
We spent days hacking into Tanks (Battle City), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Mario Bros. and other 8-bit hits. Among all this diversity, there was such a wonderful game as Doberman, which was released in Japan back in 1983. Today I would like to tell you about the game Super Doberman R for the Nintendo Switch console, which continues this glorious series.
The mechanics of the original 1983 game were incredibly simple, but no less fun for that. In the role of a character named Doberman, the player had to move around a rectangular level containing indestructible concrete and brick blocks that could be blown up with bombs. In addition to the main character,.
enemies also roamed the level, depicted in the form of onions, amoebas and other ridiculous creatures. Destroying brick blocks, the player collected bonuses that strengthened him, among which were the acceleration of movement, an increase in the striking radius of the bomb, an increase in the number of simultaneously planted bombs, and so on. Along the way, it was necessary to find a way out of the level, while trying not to fall victim to enemies and not blow up on our own bombs.
This surprisingly simple concept has been such a hit with gamers that Hoberman has grown into a successful franchise that today includes dozens of games across multiple platforms. In 2012, Japanese publisher Konami acquired Hudson Soft, who owned the rights to the Doberman series. And now, five years later, we can finally shake the old days again and blow something up right on the screen of the Nintendo Switch hybrid game console.
Thanks to the features of the new Nintendo platform, Super Doberman R offers gamers never before experienced game modes. For example, cooperative passage of levels, when each player picks up one of the two complete Joyce gamepads, and uses the console itself as a portable portable TV.
In addition, you can connect up to 8 consoles in a wireless LAN and compete with your comrades for the title of the best demolitionist. And, of course, there was a game on the Web against randomly selected opponents. At the same time, for the received combat experience, you will increase your rating and move from one game league to another, fighting with more and more professional players.
The game contains 50 levels in a classic style, the main purpose of which is to fulfill certain requirements in order to activate the transition to the next stage. As a rule, you will have to clear the level of enemies by blowing them up, or look for keys in order to activate the portal you need. At the same time.
the levels themselves are strikingly different from what we are used to in the very first game of the series. The player sees a 3D location in an isometric view, in addition, it is now full of all kinds of traps, mechanisms, switches, moving elements and extremely unpredictable enemies. Levels are no longer limited to one plane. They can be multi-tiered, which, along with other innovations, brings a lot of variety to the gameplay.
Between the levels, you will see animated plot inserts that tell the story of the confrontation between the Doberman family and their sworn enemy, Emperor Bigler, once again trying to seize power over the universe. Speaking of “family”. If you didn’t know, then in fact the main character of the game is not one character, but as many as eight, differing in the color of clothes, appearance and characters. There are even two girls among them.
All of them live on the planet Bomber and from time to time save the world from the insidious plans of another villain. The plot inserts are very bright, stylish and beautifully voiced. The humor of the characters, as for me, is too childish, but, in principle, nothing more serious could be expected from the Doberman series in principle. By the way, all texts in the game are translated into Russian. In my memory, this is the first game in the series, localized for the Russian market.
I really love this series very much and without a moment’s hesitation undertook to write a review for a new game. But in the process of getting acquainted with Super Doberman R, I came to the conclusion that the developers from the HexaDrive studio (namely, they were involved in the development of the project) were somewhat in a hurry and released a rather crude product to the market. For example, in a terribly unresponsive control.
which, coupled with not the most successful isometric view, sometimes makes it impossible to perform maneuvers that save the character from the blast wave. You deflect the analog stick in the right direction, but the character rests on the corner, instead of turning around it. You lose a split second to move a little further, and you find yourself blown up. I am glad that the developers have already paid attention to this and the recently released patch partially fixes the problem. Although, as it seemed to me personally, it does not correct completely.
