This week I decided to play something from my backlog and I found the perfect game. I really like Corgi’s and I like shoot ’em up games. I remember playing Metal Slug, Raiden, and 19xx in the bowling alley arcades while my brother was semi-professional bowling. I have a fondness for these games and this week is Protocorgi.

Protocorgi is a sidescrolling shoot ’em up from Kemono Games and Ravenscourt. It was released in June 2023 for the PC and Nintendo Switch. The game retails for $7.

You play as a C3 (Cute Cyber Corgi) class cybernetic dog tasked with saving their owner from a bug-like alien race. Fly around space, eat a lot of food, and power up to save your owner.

C3 can move up, down, left and right, and slow down. Enemies can come at you at any angle and all you have to do is blast them. Enemies can drop either it be space fruit to gobble up for points and a potential extra life, or a powerup.

Power-ups can come in many forms: A laser, missiles that can go horizontal, vertical, or homing, bombs that do heavy damage, and some spread shots. All of the noted power-ups can be upgraded to do maximum damage.

When in doubt you can just mash the shoot button to BARK!

The level design is pretty well designed. The first level has you going through a tight corridor, there is an ice level with blocks blocking both the enemy’s and your bullets, and what looks like an escape level that makes you quick turn to shoot the baddies.

The pixel graphics really fit this game. Protocorgi is incredibly cute with adorable-looking baddies. A Beet that has an eye that shoots lasers and a load of fish machines. It does not make much sense, but it looks good.

The soundtrack is the best part of the game for sure. I am convinced that shoot ’em up’s have the best music because they need to keep the action going in both gameplay and sound design. The Frozen Planet is the absolute best song.

Protocorgi is a fun, bite-sized game. There are a bunch of different combinations for the player to play around with, and the overall gameplay is fun. The game is difficult until you play a few rounds and then it becomes second nature to know what to do in each scenario. I like that there are online leaderboards to track progress. There are loads of different ways to play the game that increase replayability, from the multiple endings to the different modes like pacifist mode to keep the game interesting. There is even a creator mode if you have the knack to make levels.

This little game has a lot of content and is hard to NOT recommend. Great game with cute visuals and a good homage to older games of the genre.