Completed with the good ending on normal difficulty with both characters. Very much looking to appeal to nostalgia, Dogurai is a Gameboy-styled 2D platformer, fairly short but challenging and well-designed. As suggested by the title, players control a canine samurai warrior, with tight controls and basic but satisfying melee sword combat; perhaps even more importantly, each of the eight fairly lengthy levels brings something new, with mechanics ranging from slippery ice platforms through to a motorcycle ride or a Mega Man-style boss rush. A few sequences can become frustrating with instant-death pits to fall into, but the worst of this is avoided on Normal difficulty, where unlimited lives are available.

Clearly the Gameboy-style aesthetics limit the graphical potential, but within this monochromatic, pixel-based limitation, Dogurai makes good use of the available options and has a great sense of style. So long as you can tolerate the occasional frustration (or you're just very good at 2D platformers), there's some good fun to be had here.