The eponymous bovine’s moolah has been stolen by some devious swine, and it’s time to get it back. Such is the premise of Cash Cow DX, the latest throwback title from Pixel Games and Flynn’s Arcade, the creators and publishers of the incredible Donut Dodo, respectively.

Just like Donut Dodo, Cash Cow DX is an absolutely brilliant tribute to early 80s arcade games, with beautifully animated sprites, an earworm of a chiptune soundtrack, incredible playability (as we elders used to call it; basically, it’s incredibly responsive and addictive) a lightning fast pace and that familiar level of rock hard challenge.

This time around, it’s a scrolling platform collectathon, rather than the single screen platforming action found in Donut Dodo. Paying tribute to games such as Namco’s Mappy, you’ll direct your Cow around the levels, dodging very persistent and speedy enemies, gathering up your money (or mooney, as it’s referred to in-game) and trying not to die on spikes, or in water.

Smooth animation and use of colour aside, Cash Cow DX feels as if it really could have shot ahead in time to the Switch, directly from an arcade in 1981. It’s even got deliberately muffled, digitized speech.

It’s quite a potent cocktail of nostalgia, challenge and raw addictiveness. That said, it’s definitely not perfect; it took me absolutely ages to complete the first stage, but then I breezed through the second and almost completed the third too, each of the latter on my first attempt. I didn’t feel as if I was getting better at the game, as I still fell prey to the speedy, jumping enemies quite a bit; rather, the difficulty curve just seems off.

In fact, that’s the biggest issue with the game; it’s unlikely that many gamers will persist past that first stage and discover the variety of mechanics, bonus stages and other secrets that lie beyond it. As if to prove my point, the very first time I got past the first stage, once it was Game Over my score got me into 9th place on the global leaderboard (screenshot for proof there!).

Of course, there is a hard mode, which is amusingly called ‘Normal’ (as if Easy is in any way a pushover), but if players struggle with ‘Easy’ mode, as it seems they are, they’re unlikely to move on to Normal.

There’s a lot to like about Cash Cow DX; especially if you have a fondness for the pure arcade goodness of yesteryear, and thoughtful additions such as having a QR code to upload your high score, a Practice mode and other, full modes to unlock. However, it might just prove a bit too frustrating for modern players, or even players whose reflexes and skills are definitely not what they used to be.

There’s no denying that Cash Cow DX is a gorgeous game, lovingly put together by real retro game aficionados. If that sounds like it’d be right up your street, and particularly if you enjoyed the superlative Donut Dodo, you’ll probably want to use some of your own moolah to nab yourself a copy of Cash Cow DX.

Cash Cow DX is out now on Switch (version tested), and PC. Many thanks to Flynn’s Arcade for providing me with a digital copy of Cash Cow DX for review purposes.