One of the better Ratalaika Games ports to console is the co-op retro RPG Dandy & Randy DX. Taking control of a duck and a rabbit, you can go action-adventuring around a small pocket-sized world to beat the bosses and free yourself of debt. It doesn’t do anything groundbreaking or new, but it has some good ideas and a practical implementation that means you’ll get a couple of hours of casual fun from it.
With simple controls, including the ability to switch characters on the fly in single player, this game reminds me of an old school Zelda at heart. The main quirk of Dandy & Randy DX is that you are never given a weapon to attack enemies with. Instead, you’ll need to pick up things from the ground and throw them. Carrots, turnips, and rocks are useful in battle. Bosses and late-stage enemies will throw bombs at you, which you can then throw back before they explode. Sometimes you’ll need to dig these objects up with a shovel, and digging is often a way to find keys that gatekeep future areas of the world map to explore. Most combat involves this type of back-and-forth of catching or collecting enemy projectiles and throwing them back. Bosses often switch this up with an octopus requiring good timing as it’s out at sea, and another boss using conveyor belts to whip things out of reach.
When not in combat (which resets itself when you leave and reenter a screen), you’ll be using the hammer as a way to whack blocks around to solve Sokoban-style puzzles. Many screens have pressure pads and maze walls or fences to push the blocks around to open a gate or reveal a treasure chest. They are quite simple to complete and offer a different change of pace. I much preferred the ice hook areas, where, instead of sliding everywhere (and off into the water), you’ll pull yourself using a hook towards specific walls. What Dandy & Randy DX doesn’t do often is actually layer the different gameplay elements on top of each other. They stay localised to their area of the world map, and as such, the game stays fairly easy as a result. If you do die, you’ll drop all the money you had collected to that point in the game. Remember to collect it on your next respawn so you don’t lose much progress.
Whilst it is a bit easy, and the world feels too segmented for its own good, Dandy & Randy DX is an inoffensive and competently made action-adventure game. Fans of early 90s top-down adventure games will slip into it like comfy slippers. This is a generous 7 out of 10, but that’s because it is always on sale at a very low price. It’d work well as a parent and child game to play, as one can help the other and take the action burden away from a less skilled gamer. That’s where its charm lies, and for that it offers a simple, colourful, and rounded experience.
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