Game: Doodle Harmony Ghosts
Genre: Puzzle, Matching, Casual, Indie
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Rebelião Studio
Controller Support: No
Price: US $1.99 | UK £1.69 | EU € 1,99
Release Date: February 19th, 2024
Review code used with thanks to Rebelião Studio
Rebelião Studios has followed up on its previous casual click-and-match game, Doodle Harmony, with a refreshed version called Doodle Harmony Ghosts. The biggest difference between the two games? I could see Parks and Recs’ April Ludgate playing this little cutie at her desk in between, ignoring various demands from Ron Swanson! Still as colorful and easy to navigate as its predecessor, now the doodles are ghostly shadows, separated from their faded but pastel other halves. Some of them even look like Krobus’s cousins over in blissful Stardew Valley!
Doodle Harmony Ghosts Features Simple Graphics and Sound Design
The original Doodle Harmony leaned into a more colorful sparkle than its follow-up, with a timer that’s mostly only there for your benefit, and a completed series of matches rewarding the player with a fireworks display. Its gimmick is simple: Match each simple inky doodle with its colorful shadow. With a hundred pairs filling a scrollable board, you’ll find yourself looking for matching patterns and muttering notable individual features under your breath.
Doodle Harmony Ghosts isn’t different beyond its aesthetic, replacing the multicolored fireworks display with a pure inky-black spray that, surprisingly, may look a little familiar to those of us that got out to the movies recently! The good news is, that’s the only thing this game has in common with the Harkonnens and their homeworld. The inky doodles themselves are sometimes similar to the ones from the previous game, but many look new and appropriately ‘spooky’ in a harmless, fun way. No jump scares await; just chill Babadook and Sadako-like figures waiting for their shadow to come back home.
There’s also a whisper of ambient music that may be a little spookier-sounding than expected, especially compared to the perky beeps and happy cheers of the original Doodle Harmony. Ghosts reunited with their shadow release a content sigh and disappear, but there are no jumpscare chords to disrupt your vibe. It’s lightly Gothic, although you might startle yourself if you start playing late at night, after a viewing of something like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, or Crimson Peak.
Doodle Harmony Ghost’s Simple Gameplay Leads to a Smooth Experience
I play PC games almost exclusively on the Steam Deck, and Doodle Harmony Ghosts is, I’m delighted to report, another game that works smoothly right from the starting screen. There’s only cursor motion, a bit of screen-scrolling, and the occasional button click, all of which works fine with the trackpad and the right trigger. Touchscreen controls work well, too! I can’t imagine there would be any trouble with a simple mouse input on a desktop system, and our previous coverage of the delightfully stable and simple-to-run original game suggests that I’m safe saying that.
Actually, playing Doodle Harmony Ghosts is as simple as rolling your cursor over to whoever you want to try to match, be that the doodle or the shadow: both can be moved as you search and trying to find its partner. I found myself muttering nicknames to help me as I scrolled around: Lady Train for a ghost with a flowing train on their robe, Many Eyes (guess what he had), Flippy Hair, Ghost Cat, Birb, and such like. Achievements for each successful pair matched up will tell you the real names of these ghosties, but I say whatever, have fun naming them your way.
As I said, the timer tells you how long it took to match everyone up, and there’s a daily leaderboard function for those who are interested in those kinds of metrics. It’s not an in-depth tracker, nor is there any sense of pressure to participate in the rankings. It’s pretty much down to if you want to push your matching limits.
Restarting the game shuffles the layout of all the ghosts, giving it replayability. It’s not a complex game, and, to its credit, it’s not trying to be. What it will do is give you a relaxing, 10-20 minute experience per round of harmonious doodle ghost matching. Perfect for when you’re in between bigger games.
Doodle Harmony Ghosts Shivers With Its Peers
Doodle Harmony Ghosts doesn’t have the complexity of hidden object games Hidden Capybaras with Orange, and the matching aspect doesn’t lead to anything trickier, like the recent hit, Suika. If there is anything to complain about, it’s that it really is just a variation on the original Doodle Harmony. If you already own that game, it’s truly up to you if you want the visual differences Doodle Harmony Ghosts offers you.
Otherwise, the best solution is to pick which game has an aesthetic that suits you better. At the delightfully cheap price point, the Doodle Harmony games keep to, there’s nothing stopping you from owning both and playing them depending on your whims. And, if you’re looking to share with children, I don’t personally think the ghosts are too scary-looking. Plus, most kids of my acquaintance happen to love a spooky little guy. But do trust your judgment, especially if they’re very young.
Conclusion
Doodle Harmony Ghosts is a lovely and simple PC treat that’s meant to engage the zen-seeking portions of your mind and have you just click happily away at the screen for a little while. There’s no frustration and nothing hidden behind its simple veneer. Perhaps the only advice I would have for these indie creators depends entirely on their comfort zone: Doodle Harmony and Doodle Harmony Ghosts would be perfect for gamers who own a tablet. Then, I’d be able to push this game onto my partner, who exclusively plays games like this on their tablet.
That said, mobile development is a whole other critter, and it can be intimidating to approach for independent creators. My recommendation is, if you like simple but pleasing puzzle games and like supporting small creators, putting this one in your library will be no mistake.
Doodle Harmony Ghosts occupies a quiet niche on the Steam store, where a simple and cheap game still means you’re getting a nice value for your time and dual dollar bucks.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot
