Nintendo/Game Freak's Drill Dozer for GBA

Captain Kuro

I usually don't make threads (not sure if I ever have before - maybe once), but I thought I'd go ahead and make this one.

I haven't been following gaming news lately, but today I checked out some gaming magazines. I saw some screenshots for this GBA game by Nintendo/Game Freak called "Drill Dozer" and it looked appealing to me. I read about it, and it has been getting pretty good reviews (one review even compared it to the early work of Treasure).

So, I decided to buy it. And, although I've only finished a few stages, I have to say that it's pretty good.

When I first saw it, I thought it would be similar to Mr. Driller or Dig-Dug. However, it's actually an action/adventure platformer. It's my favorite new action game since Treasure's Astro Boy for GBA (Gunstar Super Heroes was good, but I still prefer the original Gunstar Heroes for Genesis).

Anyway, you control a drill robot, so there's plenty of drilling involved. It took awhile to get the hang of the gameplay, but it's really neat. You can even use your drill to bounce off these spring-blocks and stuff. There's more to it, but I don't really know how to explain it all. The graphics are also pretty cool in my opinion (of course, I like old sprite style graphics the best, so maybe it's just me).

If you are a fan of 2D platformers then I recommend this game. It's probably because I haven't been following gaming news lately, but I didn't even know this game existed until today.

Has anyone else played it yet?

OwnerZeff

I have yet to play the game, but all signs seem to point to it being a pretty good game (www.gamerankings.com is pretty good for checking on this sort of thing). I've heard comparisons to Megaman and Astro Boy in terms of action platformer game quality. My only question concerns the length of the game. I really enjoyed the ride that Astro Boy for the GBA took me on, but it ceased to be enjoyable after I beat it on the hardest level (except occaisionally going to one level or another to fight a specific enemy). I tend to hold my cash until I find a game that has a good amount of replay value on top of its quality. How far are you into the game and are there any other modes?

Captain Kuro

Well, I'm only on Area 3 right now. From what I've seen so far, there's usually two levels per Area.

Supposedely, you can unlock a Hard Mode. I haven't read much about it though.

I think the stages are probably a little longer than Astro Boy's…or at least you can't blast through them as fast.

I still haven't beat Astro Boy's hard mode, so I'm not sure how challenging you would find the game to be.

If I get any farther this week, I'll let you know more about it.

Myoti

I played a Japanese emulation of this, but only got through a couple of levels (I think I beat some scorpion-type boss…).

I made get it sometime (if I can scrape up the money).

Mr. Zoro

Drill Dozer…hey, isn't the person controlling the Drill Machine a female? If it is, then I know what you're talking about.

Captain Kuro

@Mr.:

Drill Dozer…hey, isn't the person controlling the Drill Machine a female? If it is, then I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, that's it.

And yeah, the scorpion robot things is a boss in level 1-2.

Oh, and I've been playing Area 4 for awhile now. I haven't been giving the game my full attention lately (too much work to do), but I've been playing it off and on (you can save in the levels). I'm still not done with Area 4-1, so I'd say the game is fairly long. Also, you'll have to replay stages once you upgrade your drill so that you can drill harder blocks to find treasure.