Some people may take a liking to Greendog but it doesn't buy me!
Greendog is set in modern day time with you playing the role of a teenage thrill seeker. Your first scene has you setting foot in Aztec jungles to search for ancient ruins being a likely place for ancient treasures. You have a Frisbee that can knock the stuffing out of a Christmas turkey as a weapon and other items come later on. This is pretty well your run of the mill platform game but thankfully Sega of America have tried to add variety into the game and this has successfully made it more playable. The use of different forms of transport is the best feature with either a skateboard which adds a Wonder Boy touch to the game. Plus Roller Blades which show that the game is a new title but doesn't differ too much from the skate board. Also a Pedi Copter in which you must peddle to keep aloft in the air. And lastly SCUBA equipment to get you mobile in water without drowning. The game has a good variety of rounds with the first round being a jungle setting then an underwater aquarium setting to a city sub way! Green dog the character himself is well drawn but too awkward to maneuver at times due to his size but he is well animated. The backgrounds vary from average backgrounds to some of the best seen yet in a MD game. The beach side round shows excellent looking clouds in the background and extremely detailed palm trees lining the foreground! But some of the enemy sprites could have been worked on a little more. Some of the enemies have good original touches to them such a the puff fish that start out as just a pair of eyes! I especially liked the subway round as you have trains pulling up and dropping off people as you walk through the platforms,* You do seem to have one or two friends though as a pesky pooch sets out to assist every now and then but all he does is collect items for you and leaves a bad smell where ever he goes. Noi!
The sound effects are typical of Sega of America that being crap but the music is at times catchy if not roughly done. The game is fun to play at first go with so many contraptions to use but the low difficulty setting and poor game play does tend to add an unfortunate boring feel to the game. In this case I'm going to name names by saying that Sega of America have been producing crap titles and no feeling of excitement is produced when they announce new releases. Unless they start to change their methods then we can expect to see more crappy looking titles such as Kid Chameleon, Spiderman, Mario Lemieux and Tail Spin to come from 30A. Please for Sega's sake and name clean your act boys! Look at Batman Returns or Alisia Dragoon for a slightly better title or for the ultimate go for Sonic 2 or World of Illusion (reviewed in this issue!) for a real treat. Some people may take a liking to Greendog but it doesn't buy me!
Brian Costelloe
As printed in Megazone April May 1992