The Last Friend places you in control of Alpha, a strong and silent protagonist who travels a wasteland in a decked-out RV with a pack of his best friends. His best friends, of course, are dogs. Their leader is a spicy little chihuahua named T. Juan who does all the talking on behalf of the gang, and together Alpha and the pack fight off a horde of Mad Max-esque frat bros who have imprisoned dozens of dogs because… whatever, it doesn’t matter. The Last Friend's plot is nonsensical, but in the best of ways, and it’s really just there as set dressing to give some goofy context to the gameplay.
Each stage has you playing in a Plants vs. Zombies-like tower defense map, where your vulnerable RV is parked on the left and it’s up to Alpha and the goodest of bois to keep the frat bros attacking from the right from trashing it. You always have direct control over Alpha, who can freely jump between the three-to-five lanes in each level, beating up bad guys and ordering the dogs where to build their defenses. Every felled enemy will drop some scrap, which you can then spend on constructing more dog units or to upgrade existing ones. It’s a simple but effective system, buoyed by both the diversity of dog types on offer and the fast-paced action offered by Alpha’s controls. If you don’t want to wait for the dogs to do all the work, Alpha has a series of basic beat ‘em up-style combo attacks for putting down foes quicker.
Defeating foes and beating stages earns you dog treats, which you can then spend at a shop in each region to upgrade your dogs and increase how many times you can level them up in a given stage. Meanwhile, every stage has up to three stars you can earn for meeting certain requirements—like not letting the RV get hit or winning under a certain time limit—and these stars can then be spent on global upgrades to things like build efficiency and different ‘classes’ of dogs. Together, these two progression systems help to instill The Last Friend with a satisfying amount of player agency, giving you plenty of control over how you grow your team.
All this is presented in a gorgeous art style rife with neon cartoon visuals which nicely accent the carefree nature of the gameplay and story. Everything runs at a smooth 60 FPS and little features like every level receiving its own unique title card showcase some nice attention to detail.
Similarly to the many doggos it stars, it’s tough to find much to dislike about The Last Friend. Fast-paced tower defense action, a gorgeous art style, satisfying progression, and a goofy story make this one an easy recommendation. Plus, you can pet all the dogs! What more could you want?
Comments 18
So what exactly is it that stops this from being a 10 and being a 9 instead? Just curious, because this reads basically like there is nothing wrong with this game.
Can not resist! 50% off in e-shop!
I have been playing this game and it’s a blast. Tower defense with action elements made it a no brainer for me. 50% off made it a steal!
Being a vet tech, I feel like I pretty much have to buy this.
I have to say, though, it would have been cooler to have T-Juan be the alpha. I've worked with hundreds of groups of mixed-sized dogs, and I've seen so many little dogs like terriers and Chihuahuas bossing their much bigger packmates around. It's hilarious to watch. Would have been fun to have that in the game.
Removed - inappropriate
@Highlar
needs more cats, lol
(i thought the same thing.)
@SpeedRunRocks
wtf are you talking about? not one person reading this thinks they are talking about pedos.
I'm from Oklahoma so there's your international audience. 🙄
@SpeedRunRocks I thought anyone who's used the internet for longer than a week knew that good boys refers to dogs?
Game looks pretty decent but not a big tower defense fan but I'm sure lots of doggos will be rescued by others, especially at half off.
@Highlar Bias; this site only seems to give 10s to first party games.
A mashup of a beat-‘em-up and a tower defense.
Two genres that shouldn’t go together, but have been blended perfectly. Props to the devs.
@Bakajin I mean, that’s just demonstrably untrue, isn’t it?
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/tetris-effect-connected
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/quake
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/horace
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/hades
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/a_short_hike
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/subsurface_circular
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/celeste
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/axiom_verge
@Highlar Our scoring policy is linked just under the score, which delineates between the different bands. A 10/10 game delivers something genre-defining or incredibly fresh/surprising. There can also be an element of ‘You NEED TO try this, even if you normally hate Genre XYZ!’
@Highlar Perhaps ambition? There can be nothing "wrong" with a game like Letter Quest and it still deserve as high a rating as Smash.
I don't think there is a site that gives as many 9/10s than Nintendolife.
@dartmonkey That's fair, I stand corrected. Although maybe don't remind me about Horace; I'm still a little miffed I got that game and mainly on this site's recommendation.
FYI the game has a demo!
@JasmineDragon totally agree! Small dogs often rule bigger dogs! 😂
@Highlar At least for me, every game starts at a 9 and then points get taken off as issues crop up. If a game has no notable issues, it gets a 9. If it meets that bar and it brings some remarkably fresh and new ideas to the genre, it gets a 10.
Truly excellent game so far. I usually have problems sticking to one game for any length of time but this keeps me playing and I love it for that. Plus the doggos. 🥳
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...