Stone Age Game Review: Cash Cow DX
Cash Cow DX is wonderful. In fact, there's every chance you'll see these screenshots, and read the words "from the creators of Donut Dodo" and decide that's all you need to hear. That's all it took for me! But if you still need some convincing, here we go.
Donut Dodo is one of those games that really hit different. There have been a number of great new classic arcade-style games over the past few years, but for as great as the likes of Annalynn and Galicticon have been (and don’t misunderstand me, those games are GREAT), it’s Donut Dodo from pixel games that enthralled me the most. It captured that classic arcade feel so perfectly, and it managed to do so in a modern way that felt fresh.
After spending countless hours with it on both Atari VCS and Nintendo Switch (I liked it so much I bought it twice) pixel games had instantly become one of those developers that I’d be watching very closely. Over the past few years, a small handful of development studios have earned my undivided attention. For example, Thomas K. Young’s Dadish ensured that pretty much anything with his name on it would be an instant buy from me, and Sabotage Studios’ The Messenger hooked me so much that I’m a customer of theirs for life (a decision that served me well earlier this year with the exquisite Sea of Stars). Pixel games is officially on that same list. I have yet to go back and try any of their older games, but when I saw the trailer for their followup to Donut Dodo, it spoke to me in the exact same way. Now that the game is out and I’ve had some time to put into it, I’m pleased to say that Cash Cow DX from pixel studios is another retro-inspired classic that’s not to be missed.
Like Donut Dodo before it, Cash Cow DX has a pretty straightforward premise. You’re a cow who’s traveling through a mine to collect your treasure that’s been stolen by the Pig Pockets. It makes about as much sense as a giant dodo bird stealing a chef’s donuts, and I'm all for it.
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Cash Cow DX is a much more difficult game than Donut Dodo, at least to me. This isn’t a single-screen affair like its predecessor, and it sort of reminds me of Mappy crossed with City Connection and a dash of Annalynn, if that makes sense. You play as the titular Cash Cow, and the aforementioned monsters who get in your way, known as the Pig Pockets, do so under the leadership of Party Piggy, a disco dancing pig. They have stolen all your “mooney” and you must get it back through a variety of stages, each with a different central theme. The first area, Loony Loops, has slides all over the place, and a couple of Sonic the Hedgehog-style loops you can run through. There’s a boat stage, a mine cart stage, and you get the gist of it.
Cash Cow has intentionally loose controls, which makes this game really difficult to just quickly blast through. You’ll need to be careful, and VERY aware of your surroundings. Thanks to the nature of Cash Cow’s movements, twitch reactions won’t always be enough to save yourself from an enemy appearing right in front of you while running around. Fortunately, the game never hits you with anything you couldn’t have seen coming. Whenever there’s an enemy in your path, an arrow appears at the edge of the screen to give you a heads up. As long as you’re patient and mindful of the warnings the game gives you, you should be fine. But Cash Cow’s innate inertia makes taking your time a considerable challenge. The game seems to want you to go fast, but just like the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, speed is a dangerous thing. You really do need to keep that instinct to run like mad at bay, because if you don't you'll find yourself staring down a Game Over screen in no time.
There’s also a pickaxe you can get that works like the hammer in Donkey Kong, except this one makes you temporarily invincible. Nice! But the pickaxe isn’t just a weapon it’s also the key to finding the EXTRA letters hidden in each stage. While using the pickaxe, a special area will begin to glow, if you manage to get there before time runs out, you can play a Donkey Kong Country style barrel blasting bonus stage, where an EXTRA letter is hidden.
Once you've collected all the jewels in one stage, you move onto the next, and this repeats until you lose all your lives. The final stage includes a boss battle against the Party Pig himself where you have to ride a bunch of zip lines to shut down his music. It's tough, but like Donut Dodo, it isn’t exactly a long game. It is an arcade experience, after all, but with harder difficulty levels and high scores to chase, there’s plenty of replay value on hand to get you your mooney’s worth. Unlike Donut Dodo, though, Cash Cow DX has a practice mode, which has been a huge help to me personally because I am NOT good at this game.
I may not personally like Cash Cow DX quite as much as Donut Dodo, but that’s all comes down to me not being very good at it. The music isn’t quite as catchy either. Not that it’s bad! It’s wonderful, but Donut Dodo has it beat in that department.
If the likes of Murtop, Annalynn, Donut Dodo, and more have grabbed your attention in the past, do not hesitate to grab this wonderful game. It’s tough as nails, but it’s ridiculously fun and well worth the mooney.
Cash Cow DX is available now on Steam and Atari VCS, and is coming to Nintendo Switch in September.
Note: The opinions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not represent Stone Age Gamer as a whole.
