'Metal Dogs' Lets You Take Down Monsters As Dogs With Guns

Have you ever played a top-down shooter action game and thought ‘Where are all the dobermans?’ Well have we got a game for you.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Metal Max franchise, Kadokawa games has announced the physical release of a Metal Max spin-off game with dogs. The cleverly titled Metal Dogs will release on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, Friday (8 April). The date is significant in Japanese as it can be read as shiba, which is also the name of one of the dog breeds you can play as. Pochi the shiba is an established character from other Metal Max games, who comes with his very own back mounted arsenal. However, this is the first time he has been honoured with his own game.

If you want to see the term gun dog taken quite literally, watch these little guys go in the trailer below.



This spin-off is more of a rogue-like rather than an RPG as with the main games in the franchise, but it does have 300% more dogs than usual too. As you keep the weapons, items and experience gained after each round it doesn’t quite fit snugly into the genre but you will still do a lot of dying.

You choose your dog from the three provided: our shiba Pochi, a bulldog called Bonanza and a doberman named Bell, and see how far you can get through the gun riddled world, in either normal or hard-core mode. As you battle you can also pick up different costumes for your dogs. The trailer doesn’t say whether these actually provide your dog with any form of attacking or defensive boosts or whether it’s just so that you can see a bulldog dressed as a shark, but they are certainly a saucy little bonus.

The physical versions are going to be released only in Japan, but if you want to shoot down monsters with try hard dog-like energy, Metal Dogs is currently early access on Steam.