G: Drill Dozer

Drill Dozer is game developed by Game Freak. That name might sound familiar to you because Game Freak is the primary developer for the Pokemon series. In 2005 (2006 NA), they released this platforming game for the Game Boy Advance. Drill Dozer has you play as Jill, the daughter of the leader of a bandit gang known as the Red Dozers. The gang's red diamond has been stolen and Jill is trying to get it back. The story is simplistic and not particularly well written or memorable, but it's serviceable and the main draw for this genre is the gameplay anyway.

As far as the gameplay goes, it is rather mediocre. Jill is in a mech suit with a big drill attached to it which you must use to break down obstacles such as walls and blocks. There is also jumping from platform to platform like in the traditional platformer, but Jill's jumps lack any real height and not to mention her walk speed is atrocious. The primary maneuverability tool in this game however is the drill. In addition to using it destroy obstacles it is also used to cling onto lifts, move through air ducts, and bounce off of rubber blocks. The pace of movement with the drill in these scenarios can range from slow to fast, but it's all dependent on that particular level's design.

A good part of this game is also reliant on combat, which I find worse than the platforming. You spin your drill to attack enemies or deflect attacks, but beating enemies never has a real feel of accomplishment or feedback like it does in other platformers. Most enemies are pretty straightforward to beating, but even the ones that require weak points to exploit, they are more of a nuisance than fun. The segments when the player is locked at a particular screen while enemies attack you from both sides is a great example of this. How the combat and platforming form together in the levels is also all around average. The diversity in the levels is significant enough, but structurally the obstacles set out in front of you doesn't grant you a feeling of any real accomplishment and a lot of times feels like a chore. There is also the very odd design choice to have the player reset to the first gear at the beginning of each level. Gears are modes for your drill. The higher the gear, the faster the drill spins and the more damage it deals to enemies and obstructions. Being reset to the weakest and slowest gear at the beginning of each level partly makes these diverse levels feel redundant. After gaining your third gear in a previous level in order to travel through air ducts at break neck speed and then being reduced to slugging through them slowly with the first gear in the next level just feels bad.
The game also doesn't take the player's intelligence into account as the game feels like it should point out the obvious brightly colored weak points in every boss battle. Having those messages pop up takes me a bit out of the fight. Also, I have to note that I generally don't have a problem with water levels in games like a lot of gamers do, but the one in Drill Dozer is just atrocious. The controls are hideously even more sluggish and unintuitive than they are in the normal levels.

Overall Drill Dozer is an average game without any redeeming qualities. You will not be missing out on anything, by choosing not to play this game. There are plenty others in the genre that do everything better than Drill Dozer does.

5/10