Drill Dozer

[Bikini Miltank]

Because it is awesome, and deserves its own thread.

Drill Dozer is one of Game Freak's lesser-known titles. It's a platformer on the GBA that has you controlling a small girl in a walking mecha with a giant drill. It's probably the most innovative platformer I've played since the 16-bit days: the way that the drill is controlled is especially fun, and the cartridge has a rumble feature which it uses to great effect.

Sadly, Game Freak seem to have abandoned the franchise: there was talk of a sequel, but the sales weren't great, especially as the game came out towards the end of the GBA's life. There wasn't even a European release (and never have I been so glad that GBA games are regionless). Mind you, Jill (the main character) does make a cameo in Smash Bros Brawl as an assist trophy, so I'm glad the game hasn't totally been forgotten.

A bit of random trivia: one of Jill's unlockable costumes is based on Leaf. A number of sound effects from the Pokemon games are also reused in Drill Dozer, the most noticeable one being the 'health restoring' noise.

The game was designed by Ken Sugimori (with a slightly different, though still recognisable art style) and the music, most of which I love, is by Go Ichinose. The music tends to be quite frenetic and fast-paced in comparison to the more sedate/majestic Pokemon music, although the Team Galactic hideout music in DPPt sounds really Drill Dozer-esque.

Anybody else here who loves Pokemon's neglected little sister?

 

[Grave-E]

Whoo, always nice to see fans of this game. It very quickly became a personal favourite of mine, and I was devestated when I found out it sold so poorly. Couple that with the constant slew of new pokemon stuff popping out of Gamefreak, and the chances of a sequel ever being made are looking pretty dire. It's a shame, since it was a quality platformer with lots of fun ideas going on. The design work was especially funky and refreshing, and it's always cool to see Sugimori draw something other than pokemon, even if they didn't use his illustrations for the finished product. On the gameplay side of things, boring through walls and enemies always felt satisfying, regardless of difficulty. I'll never forget how awesome it felt wrecking Carrie's clunky police mech in the museum vault. I feel they could have got a lot of milage out of the touch screen and motion control aspects of Nintendo's current hardware given the theme of the game, buuuut what're ya gonna do?