Previous Next

Green Dog!? What the hell is Green Dog!? A family pooch from Sellafield? Or, alternatively, a canine that carries its own pooper scooper? Nope, both wrong! Green Dog is in fact the name of a Californian surfing fellow. Yep! It's time to wheel out a million and one phrases we know and love, like bogus, bummer, bodacious etc, and all pretend we live on the west coast USA.

Anyway, Green Dog is minding his own business riding the waves one day, when a particularly huge wave washes him ashore on a foreign beach. He notices a strange medallion hanging about his neck just at about the same time that a beautiful young beach babe appears out of thin air. She explains that the only way to get rid of the hated decoration is to reunite it with the treasures of the Aztecs. The whereabouts of these are indicated on the back of the medallion.

"Hey, no problemo," he thinks. However there is an added clause to this desperate situation. His surfing skills are be taken from him until such time that his mission is complete. Better start now then, eh?

Green Dog was originally a board game that gained cult status in the USA.

Guide Green Dog through six different Caribbean islands and Aztec ruins to retrieve pieces of the magical surfboard.

Green Dog may have been deprived of his surf-board, but he still gets to party on other, like, totally cool forms of transportation man. Like, hey, he rides a skateboard, yeah, and, like, he rollerskates too. Wow! Awesome man, like, cool.

At various points in the game, like the beach in Curacao, Green Dog is joined by a crazy anonymous pooch who chases GD's frisbee, barks a lot and is of no assistance whatsoever. He's really cute though. Aaah.

Green Dog seems to want the world record junk food consumption award in a big way. Hidden behind trash cans, ornate pots or even statues are hoards of edibles such as hot-dogs, hamburgers and cans of cola. He never stops stuffing his face with the stuff, the fat get.

Part of the game has Green Dog submerged in a giant fish tank, and it's only a matter of time before he runs out of air. Unfortunately for him, there are many occasions where he is likely to find himself most heinously returned to the start of the level. To add to his troubles, the tank is swarming with malicious blowfish who like nothing better than to charge into him and cause no end of frustration.

Another top-quality package from Sega which looks gorgeous but is sadly lacking in gameplay. Everybody here is impressed with the beautiful graphical style of the game and I for one have become rather endeared towards Sega's funky new Californian star. However, the game lacks content and, more importantly, challenge.

Why, oh why, oh why won't Sega pay attention to the many comments made about the lack of challenge in their games these days? If people didn't want it, they wouldn't ask for it, would they? Green Dog has truly turned up to a bogus party, man. The most outstanding level in the whole game is the fish tank at Curacao. It's the only place in the whole game where you meet enough characters to consider Green Dog a worthy test of gaming skill.

Even then, the action is painfully slow and tedious. It's difficult not to applaud Sega for their tremendous efforts in the presentation department yet again, both graphically and sonically. Also, there have been attempts to break the mould of the typical, run-of-the-mill platform adventures with the various means of transportation at Green Dog's disposal. However, the boredom factor soon begins to set in when you realise that there is little or no challenge found anywhere in Green Dog's island-hopping adventure.

The end result is that playing the game is a sort of detached, disinterested affair that takes very little time and practice to complete. Green Dog just doesn't have what it takes to truly party on in a bodacious way. Let's hope that the sequel succeeds where this sinks.

It might look and sound great, but sadly Green Dog is lacking two very important details - playability and challenge. Unfortunately, it seems as though the programmers have gone overboard on neat touches, nice animation, great backgrounds and funky tunes and forgotten to actually put a decent game in there. It's just not much fun to play.

The skateboarding sections are brief and dull and the underwater bit is fun for a while but is as sluggish as treacle. The final nail in the coffin is that the game is laughably easy to complete. During the game itself, only the most rudimentary platform skills are required to hack it all the way through to each of the end-of-level guardians, which all put up little or no resistance to the long-limbed hero.

Green Dog simply pales besides the likes of Revenge Of Shinobi, TazMania, Sonic The Hedgehog, Mickey Mouse, Batman, Donald Duck, Kid Chameleon, Robocod and all the other great Megadrive platform games that are available. My advice is to take your pick from any of those before even looking at this.

Presentation 90%
P. There's a rather neat introduction that explains the story behind the game.
N. Not much in the way of options, and only one difficulty setting.

Graphics 92%
P. Graphically, this game is excellent. The animation is very expressive and the backgrounds are similarly most worthy of praise too.

Sound 99%
P. The music fits the game perfectly. It not only reflects the various backgrounds but, in some instances, helps to describe the movements of Green Dog himself - and the sound effects are great.

Lastability 25%
N. The very low challenge and lack of original features means Green Dog holds little more than a few days' play - even for beginners.

Playability 67%
P. The slightly strange nature of the game does attract a certain amount of interest...
N. ...but you soon find out that the game's a bit of a wipe out.

Overall 49%
It might look and sound like a million dollars, but the gameplay ain't worth a dime. The lack of challenge and variety means that it only takes a day or so to complete this, and become bored.