Drilling is dull work
At its core, Drill Dozer is a fun, colorful platformer that implements one big "innovation": you, the main character, ride in a vehicle called the Drill Dozer. Such a machine is essentially a little ball with feet and a huge drill. Something in your way? Take it down with your drill. Enemies on the warpath? Not for long. Uh…stuck in a ventilation shaft with spiraled edges inside? Yep, we can take care of that, too!
Jill, the daughter of a leader of a band of "friendly" thieves, must take over the troops after her father is injured in a fight with an opposing band of thieves (surprisingly, these are "bad" thieves; not "good" ones). During the fight, a family heirloom, some huge red gem, is also stolen. Jill attempts to unravel the mysteries of said stone and fight back against the mysterious bad thieves.
While the story is obviously lacking in terms of depth, imagination, or creativity, the cast of characters is actually rather well done. The few members of your band of thieves that you actually meet are hilariously quirky, and just fun to interact with. The police force, headed by an enigmatic and well-written female officer constantly tries to get in the way of Jill, as do the evil Skulkers, those mean old thieves. Anyway, back to the story…
So, off little Jill goes, on her quest to bring about thieving domination to the good little thieves. She hops aboard her trusty ol' Drill Dozer and goes off to various theiving locations. The bank, museums, and a plethora of other random places. Of course, the player at this time has no idea what's actually going on. How is going to the museum helping in the journey to recover that priceless gem? Who knows!
Random as it is, Drill Dozer does earn a bit of praise for the ways it incorporates the drill into game play. In addition to getting rid of your foes and knocking down obstacles, you can use it for a number of jumping techniques, use it to maneuver your way through ventilation shafts, and use it to unlock huge vaults. Admittedly, it's pretty cool and fun the first time you do it. Sadly, though, the keyword there is first.
The hugest problem with Drill Dozer is the fact that while it is very creative at first, it quickly slips into the realm of absolute monotony and boredom. For whatever reason, Game Freak got all creative in creating this game, and the first level or two; soon after, though, it's clear that they lost all spark for the project, and simply implemented standard platforming level design and recycled old uses of the drill.
Furthermore, the drill is all there is; there's nothing more to Drill Dozer than the seeing what boring implementations Game Freak can incorporate it into next. If you take away the drill aspect of Drill Dozer, all you've got is a boring, very sub-standard, unimaginative platformer. By banking the entire success or failure of this game on one, simple, under-done game play mechanic, Game Freak pretty much ensured that this game would be a hit or miss title -- and based off the fact that the drill is so annoying repetitive, I'd say it's most certainly a miss.
Drill Dozer does have some high points, but the truly awful game play mechanic overshadows it all. The graphics, though, are among the best parts of the game. You might be bored to death, but at least everything will look all pretty and colorful! Character renders are expertly done, as are backgrounds and especially boss battles. They're huge, semi-epic, and actually present a part of the game where you may have to use a bit of imagination to come out on top.
The sound is also rather well done. Like the graphics, they attempt to pull from the mire and muck the horrible gameplay mechanic and attempt to make Drill Dozer a worthwhile gaming experience. As you may now be able to guess, the music ultimately fails in that effect, but that doesn't prevent it from being one of the game's nicer aspects. The music is nice and cheery (very much like the graphics) -- however, the big problem that I have with it is that it doesn't contribute much to immersing you, the player, in the world of the game. I believe that the true purpose of both graphics and sound in a game is to make you feel like you're IN the game, not just playing it. Well, having happy-go-lucky music playing as you break into a bank, needless to say, doesn't really help this cause.
Another nice aspect of Drill Dozer is that it has quite a respectable amount of replay value. Once you've completed the story, you'll have the option to go back through the game. You can purchase treasure maps from some weirdo. (Who, incidentally, happens to be part of the gang. Don't ask me why a gang member is charging his boss for the information he's offering. I don't know.) Once obtaining the maps, you're going to have to use the Drill Dozer's abilities, sparse as they are, to find secret areas and locate the treasure.
These treasure hunting trips are quite a breath of fresh air, because they offer something that the game is sorely lacking: difficulty. The entire game is simple and straightforward, with only a few remotely challenging puzzles. Defeating enemies is as simple as pressing L or R a few times, and there are no jumping challenges that are the hallmark of truly great platformers. My little sister tried it out for a bit, and actually put it down because she thought it was too easy. This'll make more of an impact upon you if you knew that my sister is the type of nongamer who thinks that Nintendogs is a tough game.
Additionally, these treasure hunting outings are critical to the game because they also provide an extended gameplay experience. The game is short and easy for the most part, and you can breeze through it and get to the (anticlimactic) ending in a matter of just a few hours. If you attempt to go ahead and play through all the extras, though, your overall experience with the game, while still far from satisfactory, will be somewhat improved.
In the end, Drill Dozer just falls flat. It has a few winning moments, but those are all overshadowed by its substantial problems. The game play mechanic is boring and monotonous, there's no plot to keep you playing, and it's too easy to really be worth your time. It's a pity, really, because I had incredibly high expectations for this game. There's no denying that such a game had a huge amount of potential; sadly, though, that was all lost thanks to shoddy, careless execution.