Drill Dozer
| Developer: Game Freak | Publisher: Nintendo |
| Release Date: February 7, 2006 | Also On: None |
Game Freak (don't confuse them with Game Freaks 365, we have no relation), best known for their Pokemon franchise, created a Game Boy Advance gem known as Drill Dozer last February. It went largely unnoticed in the sea of new Nintendo DS titles, which is unfortunate, because Drill Dozer delivered a fun action-platform experience that relied on one move: drilling.
The Skuller gang stole the Red Diamond from the real gang of thieves, the Red Dozers. Jill and her Red Dozer comrades have to find a way to steal back the Red Diamond, but they discover there are more diamonds to be found. So what is a gang of thieves to do? Steal more diamonds! Using the Red Dozers’ trusty Drill Dozer, you’ll spin Jill through twelve stages on a fun adventure to track down five different diamonds.
If it wasn’t already obvious, the Drill Dozer is really the star of the show and the focal point of the gameplay. As a side-scrolling action-platform game, Drill Dozer has simple hop-and-bop gameplay without the drilling factor–but using the L and R buttons on the GBA allows you to spin the Drill Dozer’s drill to the left or right. You can bore the drill into all sorts of things, like walls, crates, environmental objects and set pieces, and even enemies–needless to say, you’ll be holding down L or R a lot in this adventure. The gameplay is made deeper by multiple “gears” that can be found in each level. When you find your second gear (the first is always installed into the Drill Dozer), you can shift up and increase the speed and power of the drill, though the drill still needs to recover after a few moments of spinning. The third gear is the strongest gear and keeps your drill spinning quickly indefinitely. Unfortunately, at the end of each level, the Drill Dozer’s gears have to be removed, so each new level you’ll start with that simple first gear.
Collecting the different gears in each level is a lot of fun, and the level designers have created some good maps for the special things you can do with the drill. For example, there are lifts that have a socket that the drill can bore into, so Jill can ride up to higher platforms. There are special “jelly blocks” that Jill can drill into, and when she reverses the direction of the drill (by pressing the opposite trigger button), she will be sent flying backward. Learning all the things that the drill can be used for is the only way to master Drill Dozer. Even the game’s bigger enemies require you to drill in certain ways, for example, there is a mini-boss robot character held together by a big screw. Only by unscrewing the mini-boss’s robot will you defeat it, and drilling in one direction actually tightens the screw, so you have to figure out which way to drill to succeed. It’s a simple concept that is played out very well.
The Game Boy Advance’s visual capabilities were tested well with Drill Dozer, which features big, bright, colorful sprites and all sorts of flashy story sequences between levels. Game Freak did a wonderful job creating cute, perky characters, and the Red Dozers as well as their enemies are spunky and full of charm. The levels are loaded with detail, and it’s nice that the game actually asks you to pay attention to the background: in the museum level, there are several simple puzzles that require you to move around paintings found in the background. You are kindly forced to notice the background, and it’s a nice way to appreciate the game’s visuals even more.
Drill Dozer isn’t a long game by any means. The twelve levels can be breezed through in a few short hours, but there is some replay value to be found. There are dozens of “treasures” located throughout the adventure in places that you normally couldn’t reach. Near the end of the game you are able to buy stronger drills that break into blocks that previously obstructed your path–obviously, these blocked-off areas are home to special items, so re-playing the levels is necessary if you desire 100% completion of the game. Some would think that this was a cheap way to make you backtrack, but I found it to be a nice way of fleshing out all of the levels, rather than only the later ones. There are also six secret areas in the game to explore.
Drill Dozer makes a great addition to any Game Boy Advance library. The only flaw I can fathom, other than the slightly short length of the game, would be the drill sound effect. It works, and it works well, but it is done so much that it is closer to annoying than realistic after some time. Drill Dozer’s simple mechanics are accessible to anyone. Don’t be turned away by the cute graphics or box art–it’s a fun game that uses a single concept very well, well enough to be done repeatedly for twelve levels and more. To me, that’s impressive. Most games that ask you to do the same thing over and over for more than a few minutes get pretty dull, but this drill is always sharp.
| Graphics: | 8.5 |
| Sound: | 7.5 |
| Gameplay: | 9 |
| Creativity: | 8 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 6.5 |
| Final: | 8 |
| Written by Cliff | Review Guide |
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