Great news for doggo lovers: we just played Penguin Classic Studios’ video game adaptation of the iconic children’s novel Old Yeller. It’s official: you can pet the dog, before you splatter its brains all over the back shed with a point-blank shotgun blast to the head. Isn’t that adorable?
Old Yeller is mostly faithful to the plot of the original novel. You play as precocious farmboy Travis Coates as he tries to hold his family ranch together while taking care of his rambunctious new dog, Old Yeller. It’s part Farming Simulator, part Nintendogs, and then a little bit Doom Eternal at the end when Old Yeller contracts rabies and you have to do the humane thing by firing a hot shot of burning lead directly into his little doggy face.
But don’t worry: you get to pet him first!
In fact, that’s an important part of the gameplay. At first, the “pet” option is grayed out, but as the game goes on, you’ll unlock more and more interactions as your bond deepens: pats, scratches behind the ears, and eventually, full-on cuddles. And then, of course, Old Yeller gets sick and you unlock the final button: blowing the top of his dome clean off with your dad’s Winchester 24.
It’s clear that the developers put a ton of love and care into the animations. You really get a sense of Old Yeller’s playful personality in the way he runs, plays, and even tries to lick Travis’s face! This makes the contrast even more clear when you put a metal slug through the back of his cranium and send his lifeless corpse ragdolling through the dirt.
Time will tell if the game achieves the same classic status as the original novel, but if it does, it’ll be thanks to the fact that you get to pet the dog. Before, you know, you kill it.
Our rating: eight out of ten, there’s a little something for everyone.
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