Share Game Description: Doodle Boat is an endless dodging game based in a river, while you must avoid friendly boats that dart across the screen or the river banks. This fast-paced action game will bring you through a beautiful scenery made to look entirely like a notebook drawing.

The difficulty of this game seems to rely entirely on the chance that you lose control of your top-class motor boat, by slamming into the shores or into other boats. The controls had to be the most difficult part and is what is under the most criticism from the public; it seems too twitchy, even if you do play the game for hours on end the controls are always going to get you. Sometimes other things got in the way, in manners of killing you, such as there not being enough space in some instances to fit your boat through, resulting in your failure. Sometimes even enemy boat made it impossible to make it through a narrow gaps. A quick fix to these small problems would be the ability to move your boat in any direction, I’m talking up, down, diagonal, if the developer was to incorporate ideas such as those, maybe the game would be as luck-based as it currently portrays. Overall, the difficulty was fair, but there were a couple of instances where it was impossible to continue, as a boat smashed into your side, or the river wasn’t big enough to pass through.

Doodle Boat

The idea itself wasn’t anything new, although the game was fun and put a little spin on the old “helicopter” game. As much as I loved Doodle Boat, there should have been more, as I progressed through the game, I hoped that I was going to face different enemies, maybe more difficulty ones, or just more enemies in general. When I didn’t it kind of lost it’s charm, as the game was literally endless, and provided no incentive to reach for a high-score, when nothing was to change throughout the game. Something that I would like to note is the controls, they seemed extremely twitchy, I would have liked to see something done in the options menu to change the sensitivity of the boat or just permanently change the sensitivity of the boat, with or without the options menu. This is especially important for newer player, as they should adjust to the game, before being introduced to, what I can only describe as a “twitchy” control scheme. Overall, there were a few flaws such as there being no introduction of newer enemies or the control, but overall the gameplay was pretty swell.

Did you see that score?

One of the best things about Doodle Boat were the graphics. I love the notebook feel, which strongly brings back memories of Notebook War, which was in fact completely drawn in notebook, though the graphics displayed in Doodle Boat’s graphics seemed to have a couple of special effects backing it up and a little too clean to actually be drawn in notebook. One thing that I liked best about the graphics were the torn notebook effect, which seemed to create the feeling of a shore. All in all, the graphics were amazing and I loved all of the special effects that the artist used.

The music was awesome, I loved the rock type music. The sound worked well with the game concept and idea of this action-packed avoider, helicopter genre game and made it seem more frantic creating a great mood for the game. Strangely, the music didn’t become repetitive, regardless of it’s 2-3 second loop that constantly played the entire game. The sound effects were beautiful, which utilize several sound effects to add that extra dimension of realism only produced from the use of sound effects.

The difficulty ramp was non-apparent, and didn’t seem to change much after the first thirty seconds. I would have liked to have seen more things added, maybe enemies or maybe just the game to speed up. Because, while the game does at some point get out of control when you make one bad turn and you end up spinning out into the shoreline, that is only due to chance or the likely-hood that you make a mistake in those five minutes.

The replay value was low for the average user (that doesn’t have an OpenFenit account), sure the game is addicting to some people including me, encouraging users to beat their previous best score, but for the average user, there isn’t enough to keep them attached to the game. I would have liked to see some sort of system integrated, whether it’s in-game achievements or a score board that is exclusive to the game itself. At least, there should be a way to view your all-time high-score, as of right now there is no way to do that, but I would have liked to see that incorporated. My all-time high was somewhere around six-thousand. I think in-game achievements would be interesting to add to the game, but I can’t necessarily think of any achievements that aren’t based on distance, which is why I feel the game should branch out a bit, add more unique, original and fun idea to this game and I would be surprised to see more positive comments.

In conclusion, Doodle Boat is a must buy, for the cheap price of a dollar you could be cruising through an endless sun-basked river evading and manuvering around boat and swerving to the side of shores to avoid crashing in this addicting action game. The only real flaw that I saw with the game was with the controls and the difficulty ramp, everything else seemed superb. In addition, the art was amazing, I love how the artist tried, or should I say well-incorporated a notebook theme for the game, giving it a charming look. The background music was terrific and worked well with the idea of the game and the fast-paced mood. Also, the sound effects were well established and were musically-appealing. I would have liked to see more incentive to continue playing this game, it was addictive, but I wonder if this game appeals to everyone (obviously not) or if some people need a little motivation to continue, such as a leader board or in-game achievements. Overall, Doodle Boat was an amazing game and is a must buy for your iPhone or iPod Touch, so buy it today and set sail into this addictive action game!
[View Doodle Boat in the iTunes Preview]