Review Cash Cow DX

Price: £5.99 eShop (intro price, £4.79 until Thu 3rd October, copy provided for review) 

Developer: PixelGames

Publisher: Flynn's Arcade

Players: 1

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2023's Donut Dodo on Switch and Evercade is a genius piece of retro fun from Pixel Games and published by Flynn's Arcade. Now, the same team brings us Cash Cow DX for my dusty old Nintendo Switch (also available on Steam). 

Cash Cow evolves from Donut Dodo by moving on from its single-screen compactness to a scrolling space littered with sparkly gems, stolen by an evil raving Porker, that the Cash Cow must recover. This makes for longer gem-collecting runs across the level, rather than fiddly back-and-forth for the donut's in the previous game. 

Scattered across the pig's lair of mines (I'm guessing from the hard hat!), Cow leaps into action, but jumping around the platforms and leaping over little pigs and other enemies is only the simplest element of this panic-laden platformer.

Soon there are trampolines, zip wires, spinning floating platforms, Sonic-style loop-the-loops and Mario teleporters to move around each level, adding to the chaos and usually speeding Cow's imminent demise. 

Yes, Cash Cow DX is billed as hard-as-nails, and it provides plenty of pixel-perfect leaping challenges or random deaths. And that's just in Normal and Easy mode, not sure I'm quite ready for Turbo (Hard) mode. Cash Cow DX is set over five discrete levels, with entertaining bonus stages and secrets to find. 

Luckily, since we're down the mines, there's a stash of pick axes that give Cow the chance to briefly go baddy whacking. And in those moments, pause and take a look around the level and see where the secrets could be hidden, or a better way to approach finding certain tricky gems that are keeping you from the 100% needed to complete each level. 

When you do get the hang of Cash Cow (try the single-stage practice mode if a level is really getting your goat), you can start building multipliers to boost your score (for the global leader board), and then take on the Speed Run and Marathon modes for even greater challenges. 

Using a similar palette to Donut, I'm not sure why this isn't a direct sequel? Perhaps with mini Dodos sent into action, given it has the same chiptune composer Tui, and an identical retro layout. What Cash Cow could have done with is a gentile introductory level like Donut Dodo, it is punishingly hard from the start and doesn't really provide any time to fall in love with the ambience and charm.

Even so, if you love a retro challenge and are ready to put the mileage in, Cash Cow DX is a feisty and cute one-more-go-fest as you learn where the baddies drop to, and how to take advantage of their patterns. I can't quite give Cash Cow DX a "5" because "Easy" mode is nothing like easy, A true easy mode would let you squash the baddies by jumping on them, show you where the last 1% of treasure is and let you break fatal jumps onto spikes! 

But PixelGameses do like to challenge us, (they're also responsible for the farting knight, Sigi and the slightly more romantic Sir Lovelot) have put together another solid dose of tough retro arcade fun, and anything that gets me back on the Switch is a good thing. 

Score: 4/5 (official screenshots used, as any attempt to capture Cow in action, typically instantly results in death, and smartphone photos of gameplay are blurry streaks!) 

Note, still waiting for Bobby Bombastic, guys!