Review Doodle God: Evolution (Switch)

Game: Doodle God: Evolution
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer/ Publisher: JoyBits
Price: £6.29|$6.99 |€ 6,99
Rating: EU 12+|America T
Release Date: January 24, 2019

Review code kindly provided by JoyBits

A game with a history

Doodle God is a game that lets you combine elements into new elements. In this way, as the name implies, you can create the world and all that’s in it. The game isn’t exactly new: it has been around since 2010. It released as an online browser game, and later in the same year on iOS and Android. 

Since then, a lot of updates and expansions were made. The element of magic was introduced, bringing the total of elements up to 248 within 26 categories. Quests were added, as well as episodes. New games based on the same principle were introduced, like Doodle Farm. 

In 2015 the game came to Steam. Now, a combination game, Doodle God: Evolution is downloadable on the Nintendo Switch. It includes the main game with many expansions as well as Doodle Animal Planet.

What’s on offer here

Doodle God is all about applying logic to find combinations that make a new element. Sort of reverse engineering of millions of years of evolution.

In the starting screen there’s the main game and Doodle God: Animal Planet. But you’ll also find Quests, which tasks you with creating specific items. There’s Artifacts too, letting you create special things like Stonehenge using specific elements. The Puzzles gives a certain goal. For instance, the first one is to create Cupid’s Bow using a set number of elements.

Lastly, you can enter the Encyclopedia which shows you what you have made with which element. It also shows the quotes every combination generated. 

I have found that there is so much to do in the game, that I’m losing my way around it. So I started out easy, with the main game. 

Let’s look at the gameplay

The main game features several episodes:

  • Beginning with 4 elements
  • Technology with 100 elements
  • Modern age with 140 elements
  • World of Magic with over 200 elements

Of course, you first have to master Beginning to unlock the others. 

Starting out with only four elements is easy. Pretty soon though the elements are piling up, which of course makes for even more elements. They are depicted on a large globe in Planet mode. It doesn’t really add to the gameplay but it is pleasing to see. 

While unlocking elements you get quests, which make for a nice variation. You get missions to make certain items as well. When you succeed, you get extra mana. The need for mana had me confused: it feels so much like playing a freemium game where you’d need mana to keep going. In this game, the mana is needed to buy hints. Added to that, logging into the game gets you a mana gift too. Very strange for a Switch game. 

Age restriction on an app game

The options screen offers something that I wasn’t expecting. Aside from letting you choose various languages, there’s an important feature. The kids-safe-mode. In it, you can restrict the use of up to 4 elements. For instance, human, fire or book can be among the once you want to block. At first I seriously wondered why. Later in the game I began to see the reason. Elements like blood, sex etc appear!

The music is like most game music in an app-puzzler. Not needed to be turned on, as it gets a bit repetitive. If there is a comment to make on Doodle God: Evolution it is that it feels very much like the app game it started out like. The mana used to buy new hints and the daily bonus caused that feeling. And I had expected it to feel more like a console game.

Conclusion

Doodle God was the first game that made us combine elements to make all sorts of new ones. It’s nice gameplay, addicting too trying to find all combinations. I must admit that I often resorted to try all combinations possible within two elements. No logical decisions, just making all the possible connections. I do know this is not the way to enjoy the game most. Trying to apply logic to know that earth and fire makes lava etc makes for more fun.

Graphically it looks good, and it works well on the Switch touchscreen. Not a game to play for hours on end, but a perfect game to pick up and play. For the price you have to pay you get such a lot of content, the game will keep you busy for ages.

I do feel they should have ditched the freemium app elements though. Still, I like the game. It’s a good game to play in short bursts, and there’s a lot of content offered considering the price.  

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *