Dros

Genre: 3D Platformer / Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

.

Review:

Dros is a Platformer and Puzzle-Platformer released on PC in 2023, ported to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2024, then ported to PlayStation 5 in 2025. This game focuses on two characters, an armored bounty hunter who goes by the name Captain, and an unnamed little dros, an inky black slime creature with a single eyeball. Both individually struggle to survive in a tower owned by a malicious alchemist whose work has wreaked havoc on the world.

Both Captain and the little Dros soon find that they must unite in order to survive – Captain is quickly underwhelmed by hostile Dros guarding the tower, while the little dros needs to find a suitable “shell” to survive. When the little dros discovers Captain with a severed arm and on the verge of death, it declares that he will be its new shell, something he’s grudgingly forced to accept, since the alternative for him seems pretty bleak. One of the great parts of this game is the back-and-forth conversations these two characters have as they work their way through the tower, since they both need each other to survive, but don’t always see eye to eye.

The presentation here is pretty good, with slightly-cartoony 3D visuals that look reasonably polished, even though I do see the framerates drop a bit here and there. This is backed by atmospheric music that works well to highlight the gloomy surroundings of the castle, and gibberish-speak for the characters that also seems to suit them pretty well.

As for the gameplay, it’s largely built around the two characters and their differing abilities, which players need to consider as they encounter obstacles and puzzles. The little dros is nimble and can double-jump, can travel through small pipes, can see invisible parts of the environment, and can interact with dros-specific inputs. However, the dros is too light to affect heavier parts of the environment, is vulnerable to enemies, and cannot attack. Meanwhile, Captain is too injured to do anything on his own other than slump down in place, but when Dros inhabits his body, he can move around, climb ladders, shield himself, and use his sword to attack… but he’s so heavy he can’t jump and he doesn’t have the same flexibility as the little dros has.

The puzzles in this game are well-designed, and make good use of the unique abilities of both characters, really making players think about not only which character needs to be used where, but when it’s best to have little dros warp back to Captain so the two can join up again. on top of this, the game gradually gives these characters new abilities, further making them unique.

However, there are a few problems here. First is the camera, which is not nearly as responsive as I would like, and can make it difficult to inspect some areas you’re trying to better understand.

However, I think this game’s biggest issue by far is how frequently it crashes. In just a few hours of playtime, this game crashed to the Nintendo Switch menu screen no less than a half-dozen times, making it one of the most unstable games I have ever played on Nintendo Switch. This is particularly odd since otherwise the game seems highly-polished. And sadly, with this problem persisting a year after the game’s release on this platform, it seems unlikely that it will ever be fixed.

There is a lot to love about Dros. The characters are great, the presentation is good, and the puzzle design is excellent. Unfortunately, this game crashes so frequently it takes a lot of patience to enjoy it. If you have that patience, I do think this is worth a look. However, I have to think this might be a game that’s better being played on another platform where hopefully these crashes are not so much an issue

tl;dr – Dros is a 3D Platformer and Puzzle-platformer where players take the role of a duo of characters forced to depend on each other to survive – an armored bounty hunter named Captain, and a symbiotic inky slime creature called a dros. These are excellent characters, the presentation is great, and the dual-character puzzle design here is excellent. Unfortunately, this is one of the most unstable games I have played on Nintendo Switch, frequently crashing on me. Unless you have the patience to put up with that, you may want to consider trying this game on another platform.

Grade: B-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}