Cash Cow DX

Takes me back to the days of flashy quarter eating arcade machines in my local movie theater. Love it!

Really fun and addictive! Not sure if I like this or Donut Dodo more. Looking forward to Looney Landers!

An excellent little arcade game which never was, and would've stood proud in arcades of the early 1980s. But it's NEW! Difficult, but in the "Oh, I shouldn't have jumped there, it was warning me," way, NOT unfairly. It just encourages you to have another try. Let me reach for another 10p coin to pop into my Steam Deck...

"[b]Donut Dodo[/b]" de pixel.games, sorti sur Steam en juin 2022, est un monument du gameplay "arcade", une magnifique réactualisation des jeux de plateformes des salles d'arcade du début des années 1980 - pour moi un des meilleurs du genre, supérieur aux classiques! "Cash Cow DX", sorti un an et demi plus tard et réalisé par la même compagnie, ressemble beaucoup à "Donut Dodo" mais possède cependant sa propre originalité, pour un potentiel de rejouabilité impressionnant. "Cash Cow DX" est toujours un jeu de plateformes à collecte très nerveux orienté "scoring" sur un petit nombre de niveaux (cinq), mais rappelle bien plus les jeux sur micro-ordinateurs 8-bit et en particulier "[b]Miner 2049er[/b]" (1983): on y joue une vache mineur (!) devant récupérer son or qui recouvre les plateformes de décors souterrains, dérobé par un cochon cupide aidé par trois types de complices - des [i]"[b]Speedy Spiky[/b]"[/i] verts qui vont et viennent horizontalement et sautent de plateforme en plateforme, des [i]"[b]Rolly Ronny[/b]"[/i] bleus qui nous pourchassent, et des [i]"[b]Bouncy Bobby[/b]"[/i] rouges qui sautillent de façon à peu près stationnaire. Comme dans "Miner 2049er", les niveaux sont garnis de toboggans verts (mais sans échelle), et pendant un bref instant, on peut neutraliser définitivement les ennemis après avoir collecté une pioche façon "[b]Pac-Man[/b]". Le jeu est pourvu d'un scrolling horizontal, ses niveaux étant de longues bandes avec des tuyaux permettant de boucler les bords gauche et droit, et surtout, l'espace boucle verticalement (quand on tombe dans un trou, on réapparaît en haut). Chaque niveau a son propre gimmick: des boucles sur lesquelles ont court à la Sonic, puis des trampolines à la "[b]Mappy[/b]" (1983), des bateaux allant et venant, des wagonnets sur rails à la "[b]BagMan[/b]" (1982), et enfin des tyroliennes à la "[b]Roc'n Rope[/b]" (1983) accompagnées d'un petit combat de boss contre le cochon kleptomane. Tout cela est assez simple et très sympathique avec une réalisation propre et joyeuse et une bonne maniabilité, battre les cinq niveaux est plutôt facile (le jeu stoppe après le combat de boss dans le mode principal, il y a aussi un mode infini alternatif), mais tout se complique dès que l'on souhaite améliorer son score et progresser dans les classements en ligne, avec un grand nombre de mécaniques plus ou moins cachées... Déjà, comme le suggère son premier niveau et ses boucles à la Sonic, le jeu est structuré pour aller [i]très vite:[/i] en début de partie, on a le choix entre des maniabilités "normale" et "turbo", mais même la première va vite! Ce n'est pas sans raison: lorsqu'on collecte notre or, une jauge augmente mais baisse dès que l'on suspend sa collecte, il s'agit là d'un multiplicateur de score qui peut monter jusqu'à [b]x11[/b] (!), il faut donc limiter les temps morts au maximum. En plus de cela, des diamants (un qui "cycle" parmi les puits du niveau, un situé dans un endroit précis, et un caché) doublent chacun notre score, à quoi il faut ajouter un combo croissant lorsqu'on se débarrasse des ennemis avec la pioche, un mini-jeu caché atteignable si l'on se rend dans un endroit spécifique toujours avec la pioche, et diverses autres mécaniques (notamment liées à un morceau de pastèque qui apparaît lorsqu'on détruit tous les ennemis d'un niveau) - je vous recommande de lire mon article complet sur le jeu pour en savoir plus, cf. plus bas. Au final, le jeu qui semblait très simple gagne beaucoup en richesse et en rejouabilité, et si on est ambitieux, on passera beaucoup de temps dans son mode d'entraînement pour affiner sa stratégie niveau par niveau, avant de se lancer dans la partie la plus parfaite possible et glaner des places dans les classements en ligne - j'aurais envie de dire que l'on est ici au niveau d'un shoot 'em up de Treasure Co. ("[b]Ikaruga[/b]") dans le sens où l'on peut y jouer "au premier degré" pour se détendre ou y consacrer de très longues heures pour battre et rebattre ses scores, et cela d'autant plus que l'aventure se décline en trois modes de difficulté croissants! Même si "Cash Cow DX" est finalement bien distinct de "Donut Dodo" malgré les apparences, il est donc une nouvelle fois un parfait exemple du meilleur de la "nouvelle arcade". ([url=https://simbabbad.blogspot.com/2024/11/cash-cow-dx-steam-pixelgames.html]critique et guide complets sur mon blog[/url])

While I enjoyed Donut Dodo a little more this is a worthy follow up from pixel games and shows it wasn't a fluke. The scoring system feels similar to Donut Dodo while technically working it a different way, but like Donut Dodo playing to get a higher score also significantly helps you finish the game as well since you get more lives playing that way. Both systems rely on speed and strategic routing to get a higher score but it works in different ways. With Donut Dodo it's mainly about getting the donuts in a certain order determined by RNG and doing it faster so your bonus score based on time. In Cash Cow it's based on collecting money and there is much more to collect, and the order in which you get it doesn't matter but the scoring is based on a combo/multiplier system. The multiplier increases the more you collect but decreases over time if you stop collecting money, so the incentive is to pick a route that involves you constantly collecting money to keep the combo at the maximum multiplier. But unlike Donut Dodo you have more options to optimise your score, with Gems causing a "Happy Hour" state that multiplies your score by an extra 4x on top of the potential 10x. There are usually some gems that are always there but some will appear and disappear sporadically. The Pick Axe allows you to access a bonus stage in each level where you can get an extra 100k points. You get an extra life every 100k point and getting all five of them increases your score even more at the end of the game. On top of that the axe can be used to kill all of the enemies on the screen who you usually avoid like Pacman when the ghosts go blue, which like Pacman can greatly increase your score. Finishing the bonus stage allows you to use the pick axe twice though the second time it will fade away in time. With this is in mind Cash Cow has many more options in terms of getting an optimal score than Donut Dodo which is simple by comparison, but Donut Dodo's more RNG like nature in collecting Donuts makes each run feel a little different. In Cash Cow you will be playing it the same way over and over again once you have found an optimal strategy, while in Donut Dodo there is a heavier focus of avoiding enemies with the trade off of finishing the game and getting a higher score by collecting the donuts creating a more risk reward scenario. In Cash Cow playing for score doesn't lead to you dying more, it just helps with more lives while in Donut Dodo playing for score is very risky you are taking a longer path that can lead to more deaths. That is the main reason I prefer Donut Dodo despite Cash Cow being technically more deep in terms of scoring options, with Cash Cow playing for score and finishing the game involves no difference in play while in Donut Dodo the two are at odds making risk reward choices more common. In that way Donut Dodo is more deep despite being more simple. That is also why the higher difficulty level in Cash Cow doesn't feel that different compared to Donut Dodo, the enemies and mini games are a little faster but you are mainly failing because your timing is a bit off from being conditioned to them moving slower on Easy rather than them being genuinely harder. But regardless that doesn't make cash Cow a bad game, it's still a very fun game that I enjoyed playing over and over again until I finished it in the same way I did for Donut Dodo. Like Donut Dodo it feels like a lost classic from the early 80s with Pixel games clearly understanding what made those old game great and what made the classics in particular age so well. It's well worth the asking price and great to pick up and play in short bursts.

Colorful and funny game bringing back memories when arcade machines were seen more frequently than they are these days. :) I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Cash Cow DX feels oldschool, albeit in a positive way. It's definitely approachable for both arcade veterans and players who don't have that much experience with that type of games. It's definitely worth of at least giving it a try if you like 2D arcade games where you just try to get the highest score and gather as many points as it is possible.

I love this game. It has a true arcade feel - just begin playing and you're jumping, avoiding enemies and getting your moooney. The controls are precise and the difficulty is manageable (but it´s better to learn the levels and to know where the enemies hang by). The music is somewhat frenetic which pushes you to play fast... but it's not always necessary. I also like the humor in the game and the chacters. You can play just a few minutes for a quick game, but for mastering it more practice is needed. I had to insist for beating Pig Pockets for the first time, but now I can play in marathon mode, which cycles thru the difficulty levels, great for practising. This game is a lot of FUN! I which a lot of success for the dev!

What a wonderful game, loving my time with it even though I struggle a bit

I saw one review saying "they need one more review for 50 reviews" Here you go. really good game. i like it so much!!!! nicely priced too!! 100% worth it!!! yeah!!! woohoo!!!

Cash Cow DX was such a damn fun game hot off the heels of me playing Donut Dodo. Please give this game a look if you love old school arcade games. This (and Donut Dodo) are very addictive and fun!