Doug’s Nightmare (XSX) Review

Doug’s Nightmare is an oddly creative but super repetitive $6 digital download. Playing as a banana with anxiety, gameplay takes place from a top-down perspective with twin-stick shooter controls. Think Smash T.V. but without fun, excitement, and purpose. 

Not that this twin stick shooter is without personality, it is just pointless. Why are you playing as a banana? Why is he murdering endless waves of nonsensical enemies like broccoli, donuts with squirt guns, and aliens? What is the source of his anxiety? Even though this is one-note, quick burst gameplay, it is hard to care about anything when there is zero cohesion.

When banana Doug enters a room, all exits become locked until all randomly spawning enemies are killed. Then walk into the next room and repeat until you find the boss, defeat it, and move onto the next batch of stages. Although the enemy sprites change from world to world, they all act in the exact same way, making gameplay boring and tedious within the first five minutes. In addition to a normal health bar, the player also needs to manage the anxiety meter. Over time, this meter depletes but can be replenished by collecting teddy bears. However, if this meter fully empties, a shadow banana appears on screen and attacks the player until destroyed. In other words, this meter doesn’t make the game more fun. In fact, it just makes it even more tedious and repetitive.

The worst part about fighting the repeating enemies is contending with their ridiculous amount of health. Each enemy takes way too many hits to kill. Making matters worse, Doug is armed with a melee attack, which rapidly attacks back and forth like a Shake Weight and has no reach, or a pea shooter ranged attack that fires entirely too slowly. So no matter the attack strategy, the player loses. The game offers two difficulty factors but playing on easy is recommended because enemies use cheap tactics to always land attacks. Bosses are also a joke because they also take far too many hits. With such unbalanced, tediously gameplay, the quest, each world, and each individual area drag for entirely too long.

The only form of replayablity comes from finding cosmetic alterations that do nothing. Is it worth it to fight through a few screens, which takes a good ten minutes, to unlock that goofy hat that does nothing, then slowly walk through those rooms you cleared to get back to the main path? Absolutely not.

Sometimes the player will find new weapons, but they are not stronger than the previous one. The sketchbook hand drawn doodles won’t win any awards either. The same goes for the maddening soundtrack and ear-piercing sound effects. Also, by the end of the game, Doug will have diabetes because he regains his health by eating candy, chocolate, cupcakes, and other sweets. And the menu navigation is also too sensitive; one tap moves the cursor at least two positions.

Doug’s Nightmare is a low budget, indie attempt at making a Smash T.V. clone that only frustrates and causes boredom with its horribly tedious gameplay, lack of polish, and absence of consideration.  The last few stages are brutal acts of attrition, especially the final boss, that are never fun. Unless you don’t mind a two-hour grind to pop all the Achievements, there is no reason to play this game.

Not As Good As: the seven other Vampire Survivors clone released this week

Also Try: working through your anxiety and depression  

Wait For It: Doug’s Daydream, the sequel

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

Twitter: @ZackGaz

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