Your Doodles Are Bugged! is a puzzle game in which you must draw lines to guide bugs to a magic honey pot. Is the game the sweet taste of honey or do you get stung on the bum by a bee? Read on to find out.
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The game is a mix of game ideas, throw in the main ingredient of Lemmings and add a touch of inspiration from some flash games and you have Your Doodles Are Bugged. A magic explosion has released the bugs who are now running (or jumping) amok in the Master Doodler Doodleus’ studio and are trapped inside his doodles. You must get a number of the bugs to safety by drawing lines to traverse the doodles and lead them to the honey pot with Doodleus’ magic pen.
You interact with the game via the magic pen which allows you to draw and erase lines simply by holding a button and moving the joypad. This will create a blue line which the bugs can jump on and follow, providing the lines are drawn properly you can create horizontal platforms, diagonal lines and ladder type lines which they will usually follow. You do have a limited amount of ink so it must be used wisely and later levels will often see you having to create ‘holding cells’ for the bugs while you erase previously inked platforms to create new ones in order to continue the journey.
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The game gently introduces you to the mechanics with some tutorial levels. These are straightforward designs with few doodles to overcome. They are a joy to play and are almost at a relaxed pace which does lead you into a false sense of security, as after the tutorial levels the difficulty does ramp up quite a bit. Levels turn into complex doodle filled layouts which require thought and advanced planning on the best path to choose and how it should be performed. I would have liked to have seen a few more easier levels to start off with and then increase in difficulty.
Level designs are great and have a surreal style, look at your notepad after a telephone conversation doodling session and multiply by ten! I did not realise until after playing what a great idea this game is, we all doodle and using this as a level design is brilliant. Levels are themed and examples include animals, monsters and scenic locations.
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The controls are very straightforward and while this game would be better suited to something like the DS or iPhone touch screen, it does work very well with a controller. I did not have any issues at all with the controls and believe me when I say I am heavy handed with a controller this is no lie! You can zoom in on the level to fine tune your drawing or zoom out to see the bigger picture. One issue I did have is the thickness of the drawn line, it only has one thickness which can be a waste of ink as you can carefully erase a part of the line afterwards to reclaim some ink. A thickness setting would be ideal to assist this.
The graphics are all hand drawn with a scribble filled style to give an authentic doodle look and the end result is great, I wish my doodles were as good! There is just the one music track which is a remix of the classic Tetris song, it has a lemmings influence in my opinion, either way it sound great and is it possible to get bored of the Tetris song? (UPDATE) A new version of the game was released shortly after this review which adds a second music track. Sound effects are used well, with sounds for the bugs as they jump on the ink, die and jump in the honey pot, this will definitely remind you of Lemmings!
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Your Doodles Are Bugged! costs 80 :MSPoints: which is an absolute steal, I had to double check as I thought it cost 240. There are quite a few levels which will keep you occupied for many hours but do be warned the levels can be quite tricky. There are also local and global leaderboards to compare your level completion times with other doodlers, and once you complete the game there are some unlockable features. The game is great value for money and comes highly recommended by me, two thumbs up!
You can find more information as well as download the trial and full version on the Marketplace.
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