Red Dog: Superior Firepower

Red Dog: Superior Firepower
Developer(s)Argonaut Games
Publisher(s)
Producer(s)Nick Clarke
Designer(s)Sefton Hill
Programmer(s)Matt Godbolt
Matthew Porter
Saviz Izadpanah
Platform(s)Dreamcast
Release
Genre(s)Shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Red Dog: Superior Firepower, also known as simply Red Dog, is a shooter game released in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast; it was developed by Argonaut Games.

Gameplay

The game is composed of six single-player missions, seven challenge missions, and numerous combinations of game types and maps in multi-player mode. The player controls the Red Dog, an armored all-terrain assault vehicle to fight the Haak, an alien race that has invaded Earth.[3]

Development

Red Dog was one of the first third party titles developed for the Dreamcast outside of Japan. Jez San, the Managing Director of Argonaut Games, stated that Sega referred to them, No Cliché (developers of Toy Commander), Bizarre Creations (Fur Fighters), Red Lemon (Take the Bullet and The Simpsons: Bug Squad, both unreleased)[4][5] and Appaloosa Interactive (Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future) as their "1.5 party developers, in reference to the fact that we were treated like in-house developers and given access to the early devkits....warts n' all!". He told GameFan magazine that when Sega approached them to develop for the Dreamcast "we asked our artists to go to town on what they thought a next-gen game might look like" with "no limits on the number of polygons and CPU power used and we then set about trying to faithfully reproduce that vision in reality".[6]

San described their intent in designing the gameplay as "kinda Quake, meets Battlezone meets Star Fox...in a tank".[7]

On the 26th of September 2022 the game's source code was released by the developers and published on the open source platform GitHub.

Reception

The game received above-average reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[8] Jim Preston of NextGen called it "A fun, colorful 3D take on Moon Patrol that is best when played with some friends."[18] Four-Eyed Dragon of GamePro said, "Red Dog may look and sound strong, but with poor controls, its bite is far from threatening. The only thing saving this canine from the kennel is its huge complement of multiplayer games for up to four people."[19][b]

Notes

  1. ^ In Electronic Gaming Monthly's review of the game, two critics gave it each a score of 8/10, and the other gave it 7/10.
  2. ^ GamePro gave the game two 4.5/5 scores for graphics and sound, 2/5 for control, and 3/5 for fun factor.

References

  1. ^ Justice, Brandon (October 31, 2000). "Four Ship for Dreamcast". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on April 21, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  2. ^ "Latest UK Release Schedule" (PDF). Dreamcast Monthly. No. 8. May 2000. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 11, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  3. ^ Merrett, Steve (April 2000). "Now playing: Red Dog" (PDF). Mr Dreamcast. No. 1. Magical Media. pp. 72–75. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  4. ^ IGN staff (May 10, 2000). "Red Lemon Studios Signs On". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  5. ^ Cooper, Daniel (December 21, 2020). "See an unreleased 'The Simpsons' game that never made it to Dreamcast". Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo! Inc. Archived from the original on April 21, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  6. ^ "11th hour interview with Argonaut's Jez San (the big cheese in those parts)". GameFan. Vol. 8, no. 12. BPA International. December 2000. p. 72. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  7. ^ "Player 3: Jez San" (PDF). Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK). No. Special. Dennis Publishing. 1999. p. 27. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Red Dog: Superior Firepower". Metacritic. Fandom. Archived from the original on March 24, 2024. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  9. ^ Thompson, Jon. "Red Dog: Superior Firepower - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  10. ^ D'Aprile, Jason (January 4, 2001). "Red Dog: Superior Firepower". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on January 23, 2001. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  11. ^ Kujawa, Kraig; Mielke, James "Milkman"; Dudlak, Jonathan (January 2001). "Red Dog". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 138. Ziff Davis. p. 194. Archived from the original on January 28, 2001. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  12. ^ Steinberg, Scott (February 28, 2001). "Red Dog: Superior Firepower". The Electric Playground. Greedy Productions Ltd. Archived from the original on May 30, 2002. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  13. ^ Helgeson, Matt (December 2000). "Red Dog". Game Informer. No. 92. FuncoLand. p. 126.
  14. ^ Mylonas, Eric "ECM" (December 2000). "Red Dog: Superior Firepower". GameFan. Vol. 8, no. 12. BPA International. pp. 70–71. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  15. ^ Provo, Frank (November 1, 2000). "Red Dog: Superior Firepower Review [date mislabeled as "May 17, 2006"]". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on December 11, 2000. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  16. ^ Chau, Anthony (November 7, 2000). "Red Dog". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on November 30, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  17. ^ Mélo (May 17, 2000). "Test: Red Dog". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Webedia. Archived from the original on February 3, 2004. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  18. ^ a b Preston, Jim (January 2001). "Red Dog: Superior Firepower". NextGen. No. 73. Imagine Media. p. 97. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  19. ^ Four-Eyed Dragon (December 2000). "Red Dog: Superior Firepower" (PDF). GamePro. No. 147. IDG. p. 150. Archived from the original on January 21, 2005. Retrieved March 24, 2024.