Year: 2022 | Publisher: pixel games SARL-S | Developer: pixel games SARL-S| Original format: PC | Version played: Nintendo Switch
The year of release might say 2022 but Donut Dodo is a modern indie game that presents itself as a lost arcade game from 1983. It’s not unusual for indie games to throw back to the visual styles and gameplay mechanics of the past. In fact, you can’t move for NES style platformers, Metroidvanias and Zelda-likes. But a modern game that tips its hat all the way back to the classic arcade era? That is surprisingly uncommon.
Donut Dodo – made by solo Luxembourg developer Sebastian Kostka – is a single-screen platformer with some very clear influences. Most notable is Nintendo’s Donkey Kong. With its construction zone stage designs, the fire-spewing oil barrels and eponymous giant animal antagonist, Donut Dodo feels like it could have easily come from the same mind that spawned Mario’s first game. Whether intentional or not, it also features hints of Donkey Kong Jr, Popeye, Pac-Man, Bomb Jack, Burger Time and even arcade-inspired home computer classics like Chuckie Egg and Manic Miner.
Yet for all its attempts to feel like an authentic 80s arcade game, Donut Dodo never feels like a rip-off or, worse, a tired retread of well worn retro gaming clichés. In fact, I find it refreshing to play an old-school game that isn’t just another nostalgia trip for American NES owners. This one scratches a different itch altogether and does it in a way that is fun to play in its own right. Sure, when I play it I’m whisked back to a different age and get a fuzzy feeling from the memories it evokes, but it’s not long before I’m caught up in the precise platforming mechanics, breathlessly avoiding devilishly placed enemies and strategising about how to get the best possible high score. Like many of my favourite arcade games of all time – greats like Mr Driller, Zoo Keeper or Road Fighter, I find myself well and truly in the zone, fixated on the screen and compelled to play over and over again to perform a little bit better each time.
The premise of Donut Dodo is simple but brilliant. You play as a baker called Billy Burns, who must collect all the donuts on the screen, avoiding enemies and hazards along the way. Once you’ve done that, you have to grab the one giant donut, guarded by an equally large dodo, to complete the level.
As you’d expect, the level designs increase in complexity as you progress. The first is a relatively simple arrangement of ladders and platforms, with screen edges that wrap around and very few dead ends, so it’s relatively easy to avoid the enemies and get to where you need to be quickly. But on later levels the design not only gets trickier, forcing you to think on your feet, it also gets more creative and fun too.
Stage two relocates the giant donut, and the dodo, to the end of a chain that moves up and down the centre of the screen, forcing you to make a leap of faith over some spikes to grab it. While stage three features a moving Ferris wheel as its centerpiece, for a perfect mix of fun and challenging platform action. Yes, this game is supposed to feel like something from 1983 but if it had actually come out that year, I think it would have been leagues ahead of its contemporaries.
What really makes Donut Dodo a modern classic is its simple but addictive score attack system. There’s a nice bonus for finishing each stage quickly but the big points come from collecting the donuts in the right order. Just like the bombs in Tecmo’s Bomb Jack, there will always be one flashing donut on screen at any time. Prioritise and collect these first and you’ll not only net yourself higher points but you’ll accumulate massive bonuses for collecting them consecutively. This takes much longer and puts you at risk as you spend more time avoiding enemies that move in all kinds of directions to catch you out. It’s a great risk/reward mechanic and an essential one to not only climb the leaderboards but also to progress through the game…
Donut Dodo is very strict with a small number of lives and no continues whatsoever. But you can earn an extra life every 15,000 points. So if you want to get as far as possible then you have to play well and maximize those points. Naturally, the lack of continues also ensures that you truly learn those opening few levels and become better at them with each play. It’s testament to the game’s quality that they never grow dull with repetition and the challenge remains engaging after multiple attempts.
An unexpected personal bonus is the way my two-year-old daughter reacted to Donut Dodo. I certainly didn’t expect a child born in 2021 to take any interest in a 1983 style game but she was instantly attracted to it and kept asking who the main character and the bird were. When I explained the game, she immediately wanted to help and would point out where all the remaining donuts were. In a particularly joyous moment, she watched the interstitial scene between the first and second stage, in which the dodo grabs the giant donut in his beak and scarpers off with it, and she burst into a fit of giggles. It warms my heart to see the next generation engage with classic style games in such a pure way and it gives me a certain optimism for the future that not every game will need to be 3D and chronically online to hold a kid’s attention.
In the meantime, I look forward to the newest game in the developer’s 1983 series, Cash Cow DX, which this time features a scrolling screen (gasp!) but holds true to the themes of Donut Dodo with another cute animal, some classic arcade-style platforming, plenty of collectibles and, I hope, more obsessive-compulsive score attack mechanics.
SIX LITTLE THINGS I LIKE ABOUT DONUT DODO
1. The cheeky interstitial cutscenes between each stage are a thing of joy.
2. The pause menu has an instant restart option for when you know you’ve messed up. These are always a Godsend in arcade games but I do end up kind of hating myself for compulsively using it so much.
3. The default high score board proudly references some of the game’s influences.
4. You gotta love those fun enemy names, and any game that features a sentient toilet. Very Manic Miner!
5. After finishing all the stages, but before it loops back around again, you’re treated to this bonus stage in which you move a pumpkin horizontally to bounce the chef like the ball in a game of Breakout. Every donut flashes at once, creating a great opportunity to net tons of bonus points as long as you don’t drop the ball, er, chef.
6. When you loop around for the second run of the stages, things are a little… different. There are new, high-scoring pick-ups to collect and unexpected new enemies like these familiar ghosts, who defy all other attack patterns and take you by surprise. It’s so cool that such a little game commits so much to keeping its players engaged.
Finally, let’s enjoy some music from Donut Dodo…
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Games From The Black Hole 
This game sounds super cool – thank you for writing about it because it somehow flew under my radar completely otherwise. I dig the idea of modern retro arcade-style games like this. You don’t see a lot of it outside of beat em’ ups and run n’ guns. So it’s cool to see something like this for sure!
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Thanks for reading! It’s on sale right now on Switch, so it’s a good time to try it out.
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