Ain't Nutin But A Titanium Hound Dog. Ahem.
Nice suit. Bet it's not as good as my mecha one. Titanium Hound, out now on consoles - notably the PS4 (hence the review).
Phew! Another review to do, and this time it’s for Titanium Hound from Red Spot Sylphina and OverGamez. It’s a 2D retro side-scrolling platformer that gives off the whiff of Turrican, only it’s a faint scent – it’s nothing like it, really. Is it any good? You tell me. Oh, you’re relying on me…
There’s a bit of a background here, but like many of the 16-bit games this emulates to some degree, I skipped over the narrative and was more looking forward to the gameplay. You essentially play as the po-po, operating a large mecha-suit that blasts away at decaying organic lifeforms and other metallic stuff that wants to thwart your process.
The tutorial was my introduction to Titanium Hound, as it will be for you, and it’s one of those you can’t skip. It’s important you don’t, as there’s a lot of fluff to deal with. The mecha-suit (the game’s namesake) looks like a Power Rangers type, but it’s actually rather large and fast to boot. Behaving like familiar bipeds, it’s run and jump, then shoot in multiple directions. All exciting stuff, eh?
Titanium Hound PS4 Review
With a fair amount of platforming, you’ll dash through a future landscape, blasting away at enemies, unlocking upgrades, and saving the world. If you aren’t picking up any subtleties in my word choice, Titanium Hound didn’t really win me over from the get-go. And, if you can’t be arsed to continue reading, that sentiment didn’t change.
First of all, it’s all a little too generic to be particularly memorable. There’s an interesting mechanic where when you shoot, your shield drops a little, and vice-versa, plus there are some interesting upgrades. The pixel art style isn’t a favourite of mine, but the cutscenes are pretty nifty, and I enjoyed them.
Unfortunately, it was the core gameplay. The Titanium Hound moves a little too quickly for my liking, and I wasn’t enjoying the aiming system much, either. You can shoot straight, or there’s some restricted aiming using the right analogue stick, but as per the ‘restricted’ label, you often have to fiddle about with positioning if you want to be accurate.
Quick Verdict
Sometimes I will accept a review code without pondering the content, and while the trailer looks interesting, Titanium Hound didn’t really resonate with me, so it’s hard to give a fair assessment as I didn’t stick it out. As a result, there’s no score for it, as it wouldn’t be fair. What I would suggest, other than reading/watching other assessments, is to try the demo on Steam if you have a ‘puter.