I found Wobbledogs (2021) through the Nintendo Indie Direct it was featured in, and then from a Slimecicle video. to TL the DRs really quick, don't play the console version. It's a buggy mess. I loved the idea and style so much, I did what I usually never do and bought the PC port. After putting in 29 hours and completing all 78 achievements, it's safe to say I have thoughts I want to share.

Wobbledogs is a pet simulator from 2021 released on Switch, XBox One S, PlayStation 5, and Steam. I'll be talking about the steam version in this review because the console versions are missing a load of basic features and they just really aren't that good. I'd rather focus on the best this game has to offer, and I can say this is the best pet sim I've ever played. You play as a caretaker for these goopy dog boys, and take a hands on approach to the job. you can fully decorate the whole space, even change the order and layout of the building itself, and the more attention you pay to the dogs, the more décor options you unlock.

You start with just a couple basic pink bodied blue limbed wobbledogs, but the whole goal is to experiment and make some whacky boys. Different foods have different gut flora, which all interact with the wobbledog's genetic code. You could feed them Cheese and make their body flatter, or candy corn and make their snout wider, or even dirt to give them a brown colour. these changes take effect when the wobbledog pupates and mutates. the wobbledogs pupate whenever they reach a certain age milestone like going from puppy to juvenile, or young adult to adult. these changes can be pretty minor, but the real change happens in the breeding section.

After a while of being fed and cared for, a wobbledog will create an unfertilized egg. These eggs can be taken to the matchmaker, and have two wobbledogs uh....fertilize it. the resulting dog is a mix of the two parents genetically, and the changes here are far more extreme. with the breeding sim, you can have a dog grow horns or extra legs, or even no legs at all! They can even develop new mutations like wings and tails, too. from the get-go you're encouraged to explore and experiment as much as you can to get weirder and weirder dogs.

As mentioned before, dogs can age and they do eventually die. When a wobbledog dies, its body just falls apart and other dogs will attempt to eat it, gaining the passed dog's gut biome. When a dog dies it also produces a "dog core" which can be put into storage, memorialized and put in a gravestone, or cracked open for another dog to eat, which both greatly diversifies the gut biome, but also extends that dog's life. you could in theory have one dog kept alive forever off of the death of those around it, but that sounds kinda mean to the other dogs, and good pet owners don't play favourites! alternatively, you can also toggle the ability for dogs to die off, if it's too sad for you.

Along with eggs, the dogs can also make capsules that have décor or wallpaper inside, and even after the 30 hours I spent playing, I've barely seen a fraction, which is one of the negatives to me to be honest. there's no catalogue to track what you have and what you don't, and no money system to buy things with. you just have to wait and hope a dog makes a capsule and that can sometimes take hours. While I'm complaining, I really don't like that there's no way to preserve dogs aside from just keeping the core they create. no lineage or history tab seems like a simple feature to be missing. I ended up just creating a spreadsheet because that's the autism type I have.

The music is amazing! It's very hard to describe the genre that it occupies. I heavily encourage you to go to YouTube and listen to the OST, specifically Pupa Chow, Pen Pals, and Petri (although it is hard to pick my favourites). The soundtrack fits the vibe and art style perfectly, and I feel like you'll know if this game is for you depending on if you like the soundtrack or not. The art as well is deceptively simple. The exaggerated cartoon aesthetic lends itself wonderfully to the viscosity and the wobbliness of the wobbledogs, and what, in any other game, I would consider a flaw or weird collision or clipping just feels more at home. I know that a dog getting caught on it's den and stretching out isn't intentional, but because of how cartoony and elastic the art is already, it doesn't feel out of place or take away from anything.

The last thing I'll talk about is the controls, which aren't perfect, I'll admit. You have to click to move the camera around an axis, and wasd to move it side to side feels...alright, but not 100% correct. It's difficult to fully articulate what I don't like about them, but I'm fully willing to admit this could come down to my unfamiliarity with keyboard controls, being a console player the menus can be confusing to navigate, especially the build menu. The lack of any button, or rather, any keybinds to access certain menu options is a little cumbersome, but it isn't especially egregious. featuring controller support is nice, but the buttons are mapped strangely, and ultimately keyboard is the way to go, even if it is a little janky.

I've never had a game work its way into my top ten so fast. The charm and character the game oozes hits you like a tonne of bricks the second you see it. there's a few key quality of life changes that could push it over into perfect 10/10 territory, but that stuff would honestly just be icing on the wobbly cake. It suffers a little from the repeat playthrough, same as most life and pet sims. Once you discover something, you can't rediscover it, but it's still fun to revisit, even if it's not the same fun.

I recommend as much as I can recommend something, It's a truly unique experience and it's even still getting minor updates to add more features and décor. Let's hope they keep going, and I personally can't wait to see what's next for the team behind it.

I found Wobbledogs (2021) through the Nintendo Indie Direct it was featured in, and then from a Slimecicle video. to TL the DRs really quick, don't play the console version. It's a buggy mess. I loved the idea and style so much, I did what I usually never do and bought the PC port. After putting in 29 hours and completing all 78 achievements, it's safe to say I have thoughts I want to share. Wobbledogs is a pet simulator from 2021 released on Switch, XBox One S, PlayStation 5, and Steam. I'll be talking about the steam version in this review because the console versions are missing a load of basic features and they just really aren't that good. I'd rather focus on the best this game has to offer, and I can say this is the best pet sim I've ever played. You play as a caretaker for these goopy dog boys, and take a hands on approach to the job. you can fully decorate the whole space, even change the order and layout of the building itself, and the more attention you pay to the dogs, the more décor options you unlock. You start with just a couple basic pink bodied blue limbed wobbledogs, but the whole goal is to experiment and make some whacky boys. Different foods have different gut flora, which all interact with the wobbledog's genetic code. You could feed them Cheese and make their body flatter, or candy corn and make their snout wider, or even dirt to give them a brown colour. these changes take effect when the wobbledog pupates and mutates. the wobbledogs pupate whenever they reach a certain age milestone like going from puppy to juvenile, or young adult to adult. these changes can be pretty minor, but the real change happens in the breeding section. After a while of being fed and cared for, a wobbledog will create an unfertilized egg. These eggs can be taken to the matchmaker, and have two wobbledogs uh....fertilize it. the resulting dog is a mix of the two parents genetically, and the changes here are far more extreme. with the breeding sim, you can have a dog grow horns or extra legs, or even no legs at all! They can even develop new mutations like wings and tails, too. from the get-go you're encouraged to explore and experiment as much as you can to get weirder and weirder dogs. As mentioned before, dogs can age and they do eventually die. When a wobbledog dies, its body just falls apart and other dogs will attempt to eat it, gaining the passed dog's gut biome. When a dog dies it also produces a "dog core" which can be put into storage, memorialized and put in a gravestone, or cracked open for another dog to eat, which both greatly diversifies the gut biome, but also extends that dog's life. you could in theory have one dog kept alive forever off of the death of those around it, but that sounds kinda mean to the other dogs, and good pet owners don't play favourites! alternatively, you can also toggle the ability for dogs to die off, if it's too sad for you. Along with eggs, the dogs can also make capsules that have décor or wallpaper inside, and even after the 30 hours I spent playing, I've barely seen a fraction, which is one of the negatives to me to be honest. there's no catalogue to track what you have and what you don't, and no money system to buy things with. you just have to wait and hope a dog makes a capsule and that can sometimes take hours. While I'm complaining, I really don't like that there's no way to preserve dogs aside from just keeping the core they create. no lineage or history tab seems like a simple feature to be missing. I ended up just creating a spreadsheet because that's the autism type I have. The music is amazing! It's very hard to describe the genre that it occupies. I heavily encourage you to go to YouTube and listen to the OST, specifically Pupa Chow, Pen Pals, and Petri (although it is hard to pick my favourites). The soundtrack fits the vibe and art style perfectly, and I feel like you'll know if this game is for you depending on if you like the soundtrack or not. The art as well is deceptively simple. The exaggerated cartoon aesthetic lends itself wonderfully to the viscosity and the wobbliness of the wobbledogs, and what, in any other game, I would consider a flaw or weird collision or clipping just feels more at home. I know that a dog getting caught on it's den and stretching out isn't intentional, but because of how cartoony and elastic the art is already, it doesn't feel out of place or take away from anything. The last thing I'll talk about is the controls, which aren't perfect, I'll admit. You have to click to move the camera around an axis, and wasd to move it side to side feels...alright, but not 100% correct. It's difficult to fully articulate what I don't like about them, but I'm fully willing to admit this could come down to my unfamiliarity with keyboard controls, being a console player the menus can be confusing to navigate, especially the build menu. The lack of any button, or rather, any keybinds to access certain menu options is a little cumbersome, but it isn't especially egregious. featuring controller support is nice, but the buttons are mapped strangely, and ultimately keyboard is the way to go, even if it is a little janky. I've never had a game work its way into my top ten so fast. The charm and character the game oozes hits you like a tonne of bricks the second you see it. there's a few key quality of life changes that could push it over into perfect 10/10 territory, but that stuff would honestly just be icing on the wobbly cake. It suffers a little from the repeat playthrough, same as most life and pet sims. Once you discover something, you can't rediscover it, but it's still fun to revisit, even if it's not the same fun. I recommend as much as I can recommend something, It's a truly unique experience and it's even still getting minor updates to add more features and décor. Let's hope they keep going, and I personally can't wait to see what's next for the team behind it.