Dogpile Review: Fun for the whole (furry) family

Literally!

Surprise! Dogpile is out now, and holy hell is it fun.

I’ve had access to the roguelike dogdeckbuilder for a week now, and my ROG Xbox Ally X has been in high demand the entire time, passed around from parents to nieces and nephews, all because of it.

Dogpile has a simple premise: merge two of the same dog to create an even bigger dog. Then, merge that with another; rinse, repeat. This can literally be all that Dogpile is, using its yellow deck — merge dogs and chill. That core is incredibly relaxing — dare I say, cozy — if that’s all you’re looking for.

Of course, there can be more — using any other colour deck will add newfound challenges, or helpers, as you merge. Helpful traits like Friendly will make it easier to merge two dogs of the same type in Dogpile‘s Tetris-like well-shaped play area, while negative traits like Crated will make it impossible for specific dogs to be merged for a certain number of goes.

In between rounds, a pet shop will allow you to buy more dogs, more traits, or dog tags that’ll add multiple traits or gameplay-changing mechanics to the mix. One memorable one will make the playfield a zero-gravity area (have fun trying to predict that one!), while another upends the playfield after each turn. That matter mechanic proved quite useful trying to work with Dogpile‘s pentultimate canine, a large, U-shaped good boy that can act as a bridge or a cup, depending on how it is positioned.

While you quickly understand how this all comes together after a couple rounds, Dogpile could certainly do a better job of explaining things like traits to new players. My fourteen-year-old niece, who definitely one was the one who played the most, was quite frustrated by traits and needed me to sit down and walk her through things over multiple playthroughs.

While Dogpile ran most excellently on my handheld ROG Xbox Ally X, I had a far different experience attempting to play on my 2020 Surface Book. There, the game — admittedly, a beta, development build provided ahead of Dogpile‘s actual release — locked up every eight minutes, almost like clockwork. I’ve not had that same issue on the far more modern handheld PC, thankfully.

Finally, the only other issue I’ve experienced is that quitting out of a round only to continue it again later doesn’t appear to work. Upon hitting “Continue” in the main menu, I’m presented with a new playing field, devoid of dogs, and sometimes with the traits I’d acquired from the match I wanted to pick back up. It’s not a huge deal, to be honest, as the joy in Dogpile comes from simply picking it up and playing it. Even my mom and dad’s cat sat with wonder and watched as we connected the ROG Xbox Ally X to a TV and played in the living room for a while.

Simply put, this is $10 USD well spent. Melbourne-made, Dogpile is out now on Windows PC via Steam. Grab it at a 30% discount for launch while you can!

Dogpile was reviewed using a promotional code on Windows PC via Steam, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.