Doodle Jump Adventures

Genre: Platformer / Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Doodle Jump is a gyroscopic motion-controlled Arcade-style Platformer released on mobile platforms in 2009 and after finding massive success there it was later ported to various other platforms in some form or another. There’s a Kinect-controlled version of the game on Xbox 360, an Arcade version, and a version of the game on Nintendo DS, with the Nintendo 3DS getting a version called Doodle Jump Adventures in 2013. All games feature similar gameplay and visuals, but have some minor differences.

The first half of the title of Doodle Jump refers to the game’s use of a 2D visual art style that looks like the the characters and platforms are all roughly-scrawled, with the game even using graph paper in earlier levels to highlight this crude visual style. Despite the potential for this to look amateurish and generic, the game nevertheless remains memorable largely due to the nice character design for its odd protagonist, a green multi-legged creature apparently named “The Doodler”. While this is somewhat charming, the game’s lack of music with only sounds of the action on-screen accompanying the action seems somewhat lacking.

For the gameplay, Doodle Jump has players using gyroscopic motion control to tilt the Nintendo 3DS back and forth to move The Doodler around, with the character automatically jumping when his feet land on a platform, with much of the fun and challenge of the game coming from trying to move him where you want. Players can also shoot enemies by either tapping on the touchscreen or pressing one of the face buttons, and I found the latter to be far more useful since it made it easier to focus on movement.

Doodle Jump Adventure appears to get the “adventure” in its name from the game’s campaign splitting the gameplay up into multiple levels. I found this to be a decent alternative to the endless gameplay of the original game, and the endless mode is also here too… though players must play through the campaign to unlock it.

Despite the limitations, the lacking presentation, and the repetitive gameplay, this game is still surprisingly compelling, and I actually found myself quite enjoying it. However, there’s another issue here – this game is only available in cartridge form despite that making it downloadable on the eShop would have made a lot more sense. As a result, if you’re looking to pick this game up on eBay right now, expect to spend $10-$15 or so… for a game that is still to this day available free to download and play on your smartphone.

If you absolutely wanted to play Doodle Jump on your Nintendo 3DS, Doodle Jump Adventures is that, and it’s still a fun game despite its lacking presentation and how repetitive it is. Unfortunately, I can’t see much reason to bother with this game when you can get it on your smartphone for free.

tl;dr – Doodle Jump Adventures is a port of the classic Smartphone game that has players controlling a jumping green alien thing using gyroscopic motion controls. This game is simple but fun despite its limitations, however, there’s little reason to bother with the Nintendo 3DS version of the game when you can get it on mobile devices for free.

Grade: C

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