Full Review

In a world ruled by cute dogs, three adventurers will dig their way through hazardous caverns in order to retrieve the lost pirate-dog treasure, along with a few bones - because, you know, they might get hungry too!

Diggin' Dogs by Soap Creative and Chillingo is a hard game to pin down despite bearing a striking similarity to similar treasure hunting titles of the past. You see, the dogs you control (as well as the environment itself) is subject to the physical influences of your iDevice - tilt one way and everything will shift in that direction. The dogs themselves can also be swiped to give them a jumping boost, but aside from that your only other influence on the world is touching the screen to 'dig' passages through the dirt.

Here-in lies the challenge of Diggin' Dogs as you attempt to avoid hazards (including creatures and physical traps), while collecting coins, power-ups (in the form of adorably themed helmets) and bones in the ultimate goal of reaching the golden boot at the bottom of the stage.

There's a huge puzzle and multi-tasking element to the game's design as you attempt to create paths that neutralize hazards, while keeping the dogs safe at the same time. This may involve something as simple as dropping a trap on an enemy's head, to splitting the trio of dogs up to reach multiple objectives. To assist (or hinder) you, 'artifacts' can be activated to modify how the world's physics work, including the ability to reverse gravity for everything but the dogs themselves.

Diggin' Dogs is charmingly rendered, with simple, yet adorable characters; varied environments; and sound design that makes it heart-breaking every time you allow one of the dogs to perish.

With its hearty mix of gameplay elements (including the odd Lost Vikings-esque moment where you need to combine multiple helmets to succeed) and huge amount of smoothly scaling levels, Diggin' Dogs is an addictive and easy game to recommend.

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