Is the Jump Worth the Adventure? Find out in the review
The main idea of Doodle Jump Adventures is go up and up and up on a piece of graph paper while collecting items and shooting baddies along the way. There are quite a few levels to doodle jump and it’s very addictive. The same concept that could be seen as addictive could also be seen as repetitive and that’s the point of the game. Striving for a good score and collecting everything should add to the replay value of Doodle Jump Adventures but it still feels like you’re doing the same thing over and over again.
To control your Doodle Jumper (I guess that’s a good way to describe him) you need to tilt the 3DS either to the left or to the right. How fast you tilt/turn will determine how fast across the screen the Jumper will go. If you miss a platform or fall, you either start from the start of the level if you didn’t get to the check-point or start up again at the most recent check point. You collect coins and keys along the way, with each item doing something different. The coins add to your score but try not to fall as you lose a coin each time you do so. The key will unlock a stage in the world you’re in and allow you to play a “secret” level.
You don’t find out until a few stages in that you can shoot enemies while you climb and different enemies take different amounts of damage before you can kill them and not have to worry about them. One hit from an enemy means the same as falling, start at the start of the level or the most recent check point. Different items along the way perform different things like the beanie cap flies you up faster as does the jet pack. The spring or the trampoline shoot you up as well. All the items keep you moving up, they just do it in different motions/abilities. There are some that take some skill to use such as timing your jump on a cannon ball or pushing the machine deactivator at the right moment to complete a jump.
There are different worlds to explore like Ninja world or Space. To keep the game from having that “you’re doing the same thing over and over” feel, each world has a different outfit for our Jumper to wear and different themed enemies and projectiles. In Ninja world, our character is dressed like a ninja, shoots/throws ninja stars, and attacks ninjas. Trust me, the game is going to feel repetitive and these little things try to help alleviate that feeling. The repetitive feeling is sort of the point of the game where every level is jumping up from platform to platform. Each world has a boss battle at the end where you use what skills you might have picked up while Doodle Jumping through the world.
The game has a high score list for each stage in each world and keeps track on the main menu. It also has an endless mode but that isn’t unlocked until you complete Adventure mode, the “story” mode for the game. You can see what is ahead of you thanks to the 3DS second screen but you still have enemies sneak up on you.
Now with every game, there are highlights as well as lowlights. Doodle Jump Adventures is no different. It’s hard to time your jumps at times, but I feel like the gyro sensor in the 3DS, which I’ve never been a fan of, is a little responsible for that. The gyro/motion controls aren’t as tight as they should be, since the game relies heavily on tilt/gyro controls. Some of the jumps look like you can’t make it and then you manage to make the jump and that throws off your routine.
It also feels very repetitive, which I mentioned before is both good and bad for the game. Since the game wants you to play the levels again and again, scoring higher and higher, it’s going to feel like you’ve done the same thing over and over again. At times, I felt like the game set you up to fail. What I mean by that is some of the coins would be on one side and then the key for the secret level would be on the complete other side of the screen between break-platforms, a hole( or spaceship, whatever’s in the level) and monsters. It also doesn’t really use the 3D that much, except for menu screens and probably could have done more with it. It’s these reasons that I’m giving Doodle Jump Adventures for the 3DS a 7/10. The replay factor is high but that also means the repetitive factor is high. The whole idea of the game is repetition and that wears on people pretty quick. The game does a good job with slight variations in costumes and stages but just doesn’t do enough.
SCORE: 7/10
Score: 7 / 10
