Where were you during the Summer of Doronko Wanko? Why, I remember it like it was March, and not actually Summer, when the delightful free game about a mucky pomeranian was unleashed into the world. Yep, yep. It was definitely March. Roughly translating to ‘covered in mud doggy’, the game set you the task of racking up tangible financial damage to your owner’s house by getting mud everywhere – first by normal dog means, and then with giant mud cannons. You can grab it for free on Steam here.
It stole our hearts, it did. And talking of stealing things and having a good time doing it, it’s also releasing on the Nintendo Switch soon, which means the Steam version of Doronko Wanko is getting some free DLC to celebrate. It isn’t arriving until next Spring, but it’s bringing three new mystery dog breeds with it when it does.
There’s not much information outside that so far, I’m afraid, although it has been nice to see such a lovely reception to such a fun free offering. It shot up to ‘overwhelmingly positive’ quite quickly on Steam. My current favourite review on there describes it as a “reverse PowerWash Simulator”.
The game was released with two other freebies as part of Bandai Namco’s 2023 New Employee Training Project, which lets new hires get experience and support releasing smaller projects before moving them up to bigger games. It felt like the rare ‘entirely depressing caveat free’ bit of gaming news, basically. Although I’m sure one of you bastards will find a way to ruin it for me.