DoodleGeddon Combines Missile Command Concept with Doodles on the iPad
Most everyone that is into gaming ought to be familiar with a classic arcade title called Missile Command. Well, the classic title is getting a iPad iteration in the form of DoodleGeddon from developer 3 Sprockets, with some simple social features as well.
A “save the world” type of game, DoodleGeddon may be tailored along the same thread as Missile Command, but presents itself with a much greater sense of style. Moreover, its simple premise comes with a quaint addictiveness that is ideal for killing a few minutes at a time and becomes surprisingly difficult as the game progresses. That said, the game is still a concept that has been done before, and with a handful of annoying sound and user feedback quirks, it’s far from perfect.
Like Missile Command, DoodleGeddon is a sort of endurance game, where waves of asteroids careen towards Earth and it’s up to the player to shoot them down. Unlike the predecessor, however, the entire globe is visible and asteroids can come from any angle. Placing a single missile silo, players tap the incoming space rocks and blow them up Armageddon style.
Aiming is of no concern as each missile tracks its target. Nevertheless, there is a cool down between shots, so timing and a quick eye are a must. As the game progresses, the population of Earth increases, which is an effective, and creative, representation of the player’s health. Depending on the size of the asteroid striking the planet, a corresponding number of people will die. Once the population hits zero, it’s game over.
To help fend off the end of the world, resources are produced during each level (wave). Once 100 resources are reached, players can place another missile silo anywhere on the planet. Since the missiles must shoot forward before arcing around (to hit asteroids behind them), it’s wise to place them on opposite sides. Furthermore, asteroids striking the silos themselves can destroy them and fill them with rubble, forcing the player to spend 100 resources to clear it, then another to build a new structure.
Obviously, more missile silos would make the game easier, so to increase the difficulty curve, more asteroids will appear, moving a different speeds (typically smaller ones are faster). In addition to this, larger and larger asteroids will appear, except when these get shot, they shatter into smaller asteroids.
The only saving grace to this chaos is the occasional UFO or satellite the player can shoot down for a area of effect missile or protective shield, respectively. Unfortunately, this is where some of the annoyances begin to show.
While the visual style of DoodleGeddon is very nice with its sketch notebook look to it, some of the sounds are god-awful obnoxious. The worst is the shield which makes a sort of screechy, electrical humming sound, not to mention the high pitched beeping-type noises of the UFOs and satellites. To draw a parallel, consider the most annoying digital alarm clock beeping and that’s about the level of irritation.
The sound isn’t all bad though, as 3 Sprockets does include a nice feature to import and play downloaded iPod music. It’s actually a brilliant fit, considering the simplistic nature of the game. When waiting for something or someone, many iDevice users will listen to their music collection or play simple games that don’t require deep involvement. Here, both of these elements have been combined.
Other extra features include the social integration of the OpenFeint network. Like most socially integrated iDevice titles, it comes with the basics of leaderboards and sharable achievements. However, one of the aspects that is nice, and surprisingly seen very little with OpenFeint-powered games, is that players can also post their high scores to Facebook. Granted, it’s not a big deal in the grand, social-scheme of things, but it is a smidgen above other iPad titles of its ilk.
The only other aspect of DoodleGeddon worth mentioning is yet another annoyance. It’s actually not as horrid as the sound, but it is vague – at least initially – in its own right. It’s that the game has zero instructions. None. True, the game isn’t complicated, and was figured out almost immediately, but what took some deduction was what all the various icons meant. For a number of play-throughs, the user remains ignorant to what their health is, to what power-ups do (until used the first time), or how to build more turrets. It’s not the end of the world (no pun intended), but a simple screen with all the icons labeled would be nice.
As a side note, it would also be more entertaining to have more than two power-ups. Luckily, the developers have noted that an update is on the way that will have more weapons.
Overall, DoodleGeddon is not a wholly original game, but it certainly has a nice visual style to it. Also, despite audio annoyances, the game is a nice little app to have when looking to kill a little bit of time. That said, the placement of being on the iPad may not have been the best choice as most users aren’t going to be touting that about everywhere. Furthermore, the simplicity may not warrant the cost of $3. That isn’t to say, that’s a lot of money, but more complex and deeper games have sold for less, and many mobile users can be very stingy with their money. All in all, DoodleGeddon is a decent time killer, but isn’t something that’s going to change the face of design any time soon.
