Woody: Endless Summer: A Water-Skiing Dog from the 90s – Review

As you know, runner games have been a staple of mobile games ever since that schmuck decided to go dodging, sliding, and jumping through the ruins of a temple. Thankfully, we have advanced far from primitive running, as we now can glide our time away on water as a dog with Woody: Endless Summer.

Woody: Endless Summer is a side scrolling runner featuring a cute puppy that reminds you of a character from the Animaniacs. He will jump, spin, dive and break its skull and back on various objects that shouldn’t be in an ocean where water-skiing is permitted.

As you can see, the game is visually very pleasing. The character moves very naturally and the animation is incredibly smooth on a beautifully drawn background. In fact, one of the best feature of this game, in my opinion, is the various animations of this dog on water ski. Every movement is very well captured (and should be appreciated). Furthermore, the objects are incredibly detailed; spooked seagulls flying away from a crazy dog on water ski, boxes breaking under the weight of the character, water splashing under the paws, and bombs that heats up on water then blows up (and instantly kill you). Oh yeah, there are bombs, don’t ask me why though.  

Even though this game may seems like another runner, it manages to blend in some aspect of a sports game, while keep true to the genre. The game scores the player’s performance during the play. This means this is not just about surviving and making it to the next checkpoint before time runs out, you need to look good while doing it. A player can jump, spin in the air and dive into the water while spinning to collect an higher score, and all-so-desirable items such as speed boost or time stops.

Of course, the game has it’s flaws. First off, there are some game breaking bugs. It doesn’t happen often, but when the character collides with an obstacle and/or stuck in it, the dog just decides to take a deep dive and kills itself. Yeah, the dog didn’t handle it very well. Pretty dark. Also, I wish there were more moves that players can do, perhaps the game could let players unlock them so the game can stay fresh and fun to look at while playing. Lastly, the music could’ve suit the beach theme better. How about something Hawaiian? I don’t know, I’m just not feeling this pop-melodic song.

Regardless, I definitely can see Woody: Endless Summer being expanded in any direction it wants, and be successful thanks to its solid foundation as a game. If you are a fan of runner games or just like to see a cute dog breaking through wakes of water, I suggest you try this game out!