Budget Game Review: Drill Dozer (GBA)
I never got a chance to check out Nintendo and Game Freak's crazy drilling puzzler rumble pack craziness when it first came out, but after perusing my local Target's discounted video game rack I stumbled upon Drill Dozer for a mere $7. Welcome to The Weekly Geek's first of many Budget Game Review. We all dig a good deal here, and there are some true gems budget priced. I'll try to find the good stuff and pass the savings on to you.
Drill Dozer is a Gameboy Advance game from the creators of Pokemon, Game Freak. It's the first game they have done outside of the Pokemon franchise, so I really didn't know what to expect. A minute or so after popping it into my GBA I was hooked. Drill Dozer is an addictive, fun, energetic puzzling platformer with plenty of unlockables and find-ems to keep you busy. Yes, I said "find-ems". Hit the jump for the full review and where you can find it on the cheap.
Overview:
You are Jill, daughter of the boss of a gang of theves who use "dozers" to steal jewels from museums and such. Dozers are drilling mechs, essentially, and when your dad is put in the hospital for whatever crazy anime contrived reason they came up with, it is up to you to fight the other jewel thief gang in town to get back some gem your mom gave you. Or something. The plot doesn't matter. What matters is that the game plays like a tight platformer, with some great puzzle elements and a lot of replayability. It also has a built in rumble pack!
Funness:
I love a good platformer, and the GBA is the home to a bunch of excellent ones. Drill Dozer is no exception. One of the things I love about it is all the little details. You play through levels basically destroying everything in your path with your drill, collecting little batteries and credit chips that have this very satisfying little pick up noise. You go through office buildings, ancient temples and museums and almost anything can be destroyed to get a chip. Tons of secrets to find as well, as sometimes walls can be drilled to reveal stuff. It's the combination of tons of little secrets, collectable items, unlockable content and a very innovative control scheme that make this game so satisfying to play. You control your dozer in a very typical fashion, walking around and jumping like in a normal platformer, but when you want to drill you can choose clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on whether you press the L or R button. You also can collect different level gears in each level (which you lose at the end so you can collect them in the next level, in a very Metroid-like fashion) which makes your drill faster and more powerful, allowing you to break through stronger walls. Loads of puzzles surround having to gear up, and each level has new and innovative challenges. The bosses are large (like arcade game large) and crazy. The game varies in difficulty, it's not kiddie game easy, it tends to be just difficult enough to make you want to play through without being frustrated.
Shininess:
From the detailed levels to the great character animations, Drill Dozer is exceptionally shiny. You'll appreciate the hand drawn characters and great backgrounds. The sound effects are appropriate, though the music tends to be too high-energy for me. It is borderline obnoxious. Game Freak isn't really known for excellent music, as Pokemon tended to have the same effect on me. I turn the music off for the most part. What really adds to the shininess is the rumble pack on the cart itself. It adds appropriate rumblage to drilling with very little power drain. It is noisy, however, so if you are like me and play before you fall asleep and you share a bed with someone, it might be courteous to shut off the rumble.
Worthiness:
I got hours of gaming out of Drill Dozer, I definitely got my $7 worth out of it. There is a lot of replay value in going through and mastering the levels, and finding all the secrets. There are a couple of bonus unlockable levels as well to keep the crazy drilling going. If you are a fan of platform games, or even puzzle games, Drill Dozer is for you. You can pick it up in the "used and new" section at Amazon for 7-10 bucks here.
Score: 4/5 Buy it!
