You like Wolfhound, but Wolfhound does not like you. I\u2019m going to write about 1,180 more words about Wolfhound, and most of them are going to orbit around this intrinsic truth. You like Wolfhound because it is fun, colorful, inventive, and well-designed… and Wolfhound hates you for no known reason. <\/p>\n
It does really hate you though. It hates you and it wants to kill you. It wants you to suffer before you die. It wants to burn down your house and make you watch and salt the soil where your house once stood so nothing will ever grow there. Wolfhound looks you in the eye and then puts out a cigarette on your bare arm. It\u2019s also a lot of fun. <\/p>\n
Wolfhound is an overt pastiche of NES-era design elements crafted together into one remarkably coherent amalgam. The plot is paper-thin: Bermuda Triangle, jungle island, Third Reich, secret mission, one-man army. The less said about it, the better. We\u2019re not here for the story beats. We\u2019re here to wreck fascism with guns and lots of jumping. You know… video games circa 1989. <\/p>\n
The 8-bit inspirations begin with the cosmetic: visual references from the Ikari Warriors plane crash cinematic to monster-filled Contra jungles to Bionic Commando dialogue boxes. But the references aren\u2019t merely visual trappings. Castlevania 2-inspired spiders drop from trees and throw webs at you. Ghosts n\u2019 Goblins zombies rise from graveyards and hurl themselves mindlessly at you. Metroid Zoomers crawl across the narrow platforms, threatening you. <\/p>\n
These NES inspirations extend into the design philosophy. This is a vicious, often unfriendly metroidvania, where save points are spaced out enough that death feels like a real penalty, where tall rooms demand climbing through hordes of monsters and landing a dozen precision jumps, and where a single mistake forces you to restart the ascent Getting Over It-style. The cruel humans behind Wolfhound even had the audacity to include fall damage, which is just plain mean in a platformer. Like I said, Wolfhound hates you. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not Dark Souls hard, it\u2019s old-school-Nintendo hard. You\u2019ll spend less time dying to individual tough enemies than you would in a soulslike, and the bosses aren\u2019t quite as difficult as the ones you\u2019d face in Sekiro or Bloodborne. But the price of traversing the ordinary world is draining. Spikes, falls, landmines, and aggressive foes are everywhere, and they nickel-and-dime you to death before you know it. <\/p>\n
And yet, it\u2019s fun. Lots of fun. Loads of fun. Because despite its occasional cruelty, Wolfhound is very thoughtfully made. To paraphrase Heinlein, it is made as difficult as possible, and on purpose. This is a mindfully-designed game. <\/p>\n
Every tile placement is obviously meticulously considered. Climbing and jumping mechanics are pixel-perfect, making most traversal a delight. The map wraps around itself in interesting, sometimes devious ways, forcing you through high-friction areas and rewarding you for curiosity with a bevy of hidden power-ups and weapon upgrades.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nWolfhound Screenshots<\/h3>\n