iPhone App: Doodle Jump
April 13th, 2009
= 5 stars
Simple action game where you guide a doodle character up platforms while avoiding obstacles.
The Good
- Super simple gameplay: just tilt the iPhone to move left and right, and jump from platform to platform, steadily upward. Your character jumps constantly. Miss a platform on his way down, and he drops to his doom, reminiscent of the arcade classic Q*Bert (come to think of it, the alien character loosely resembles the furry orange creature). Tap the screen to fire, useful for killing some of the germ-like creatures you encounter.
- Variety is added through random objects and characters encountered on your rise upward: springs to increase jump altitude, brown platforms that break on contact, blue platforms that move, deadly creatures (when you hit one, the phone vibrates), white platforms that disappear after one bounce. and dangerous holes.
- Your hero can wrap around from either side of the screen to the other side, allowing for some amusing (and sometimes necessary) jump strategies.
- Fun design of simple drawings on notebook paper.
- Red marks along the right side of the screen indicate the progress of other players.
The Bad
- Progress isn’t saved, and it’s a bit disillusioning to start each game anew at the literal bottom.
Conclusion
Doodle Jump is a solidly entertaining and imaginative game. The price of 99 cents is perfect. Highly recommended.
iPhone App Store Link: 
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Posted In: $0.99 iPhone Apps, 5 Star iPhone Apps, iPhone Apps
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I love the fun design of simple drawings on notebook paper. Am I right in saying that as technology has moved on the graphic design on and in technology harks back to a bygone age when you could only doodle with pencil and notepaper, when it was difficult to print in straight lines, when it was difficult to make sure that the colours remained within the borders? Is this some form of public nostalgia or is it simply that we are fed up with everything appearing in straight lines and drawn and coloured immaculately, unhuman like?
Not sure, but this doodle aesthetic has shown up in a fair number of
computer games – they still stand out amid the many 3D graphic type games.
But in the case of doodle jump, the game play is strong enough that the
graphics hardly matter.
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