Super Dog

Somewhere at this very moment, lawyers acting on behalf of Charles M. Schulz's estate are having a long hard look at Super Dog.

This particularly sterile platformer not only sins by delivering utterly banal gameplay, but also by 'borrowing' very liberally from another mobile adventurer: Snoopy.

From the design of Super Dog – otherwise known as Dingo – himself to the pencil-sketched look of the levels he inhabits, it's patently clear whence Inlogic has sourced its inspiration.

In terms of the actual gameplay, however, the only certainty is that whatever influenced it must have been extremely bad.

Super Dog's level designers have made very little effort to break away from platforming staples: there are enemies to dispatch – most ironically a series of pesky hedgehogs – platforms to jump between, and series of spikes to avoid.

All movement is mapped to the number keys. You kick your foe into touch, for instance, by tapping '5' when in the vicinity, while jumping (or double jumping) left and right is assigned to keys '1' and '3' respectively.

Not that you ever need to remember any of this. From start to finish, Super Dog signposts all such moves, letting you know what you need to press and when.

It means Super Dog serves as nothing more than a tutorial for a game that never actually materialises.

To be fair, there is some effort to spice up play. While most levels see you taking charge of Dingo on foot, others see him riding a bike or sitting in a rubber dingy.

In stages such as these, progression is actually handled for you, stripping back play even further – ducking and jumping are your only requirements.

Even this gross simplification takes a misstep or two, often pushing Dingo so far ahead that's impossible to see what hazards are incoming until you hit them.

Such collisions aren't always fatal – Super Dog is littered with bones, cuts of meat, and various other treats to keep you ticking over – but they're perfect evidence of a game that's far too concerned with how it looks, rather than how it plays.

Snoopy stealer or not, that's the real crime here.