One thing I've always appreciated about Game Freak is that despite being "the Pokemon guys", they've never been averse to making some experimental titles on the side. Sure, not all of them pan out like Little Town Hero, but we've also gotten some real gems like Pulseman, Harmoknight, and Pocket Card Jockey. But their best experimental title has to be Drill Dozer, a game that I might even say is Game Freak's best-designed game period.
Drill Dozer boasts a fun story about a band of thieves trying to take back the Red Diamond that was stolen from them, all the while trying to evade the determined Detective Carrie. The leader of the gang is a girl named Jill, who pilots a giant drilling mech to perform her heists, so it's basically Sly Cooper but with a lot less stealth and a lot more demolition.
The main appeal about Drill Dozer is the fact that you'll be spending all of the game in the titular mech, meaning that they only way you can interact with stuff is through drilling. You can drill through walls, take out screws, screw in switches, turn safes, squeeze yourself through pipes, and even attach a propeller to the drill to go underwater or fly in the sky. You can even rotate in both directions using the L and R buttons, which is used for some pretty fun platforming as you can pop out of a wall by drilling in the opposite direction. It's that classic Nintendo design philosophy of creating a fun central mechanic and build the entire game around that mechanic, and Drill Dozer's mech is easily one of the best executions of this philosophy alongside games like Luigi's Mansion, only aided by the fact that the game came with a rumble pack that made the simple act of using the drill feel so damn good. The Drill Dozer is also so versatile that the game is able to pull off combat, puzzles, and platforming while having it all be fun and satisfying.
It helps that the levels are an absolute joy to play. There's only 12 main levels, but they're quite large and filled to the brim with hidden secrets and explorable areas. There's also a unique formula that makes Drill Dozer's stages stand out, which is that as you play through each stage, you get more gears that you can use to drill for a longer time and break more objects. Once you get the third gear, the music gets super energetic and you're able to blast through pretty much everything in your path, it's an absolute burst of dopamine every single time. This gear system is able to divide each stage into multiple phases that keeps them feeling varied despite their length, while also allowing for moments of navigation where you have to figure out where you need to use your powered drill. Some stages even give you the 3rd gear super early on, keeping you on your toes. The bosses in Drill Dozer are also absolutely incredible, often pitting you against mechs that are even larger than you are, as you have to systematically tear them down with your drills.
Drill Dozer also has a fantastic postgame. After the roughly five-hour campaign, you'll get a super powered drill that you can use to go back into all the previous levels to find a variety of treasures, six hidden secret stages that ratchet up the difficulty and really test your platforming skills, and a secret password room you can use to change the menu wallpaper or give Jill unique skins. And that's not even getting into the upgrades, and the unlockable sidemodes like a Hard Mode and a Full Gearbox Mode that lets you start every stage at 3rd gear. It all combines to make Drill Dozer feel like a complete and satisfying package that truly gets the most out of its premise.
As for the presentation, this is easily one of Drill Dozer's best aspects. The visuals in this game are peak GBA, from the thick borders around everything, to the crunchy environmental destruction, to the stylish menus and character designs. Every time Jill gets in the Drill Dozer, the game stops just so she can pull off a badass pose, and it's so cool every single time. I miss that rad early 2000s energy games used to have, where did that go? The soundtrack is also fantastic. It's Go Ichinose using the legendary Pokemon Emerald soundfont, but with the intensity and jazziness kicked up to eleven. I already shouted out the 3rd gear music, but with Skullker Hideout, Art Gallery, Boss Battle, Carrie's Theme, Sunken Kuru Ruins, Metal City, and Skullker Drill Missile, you have easily one of the best OSTs on the GBA.
Drill Dozer is the kind of overlooked hidden gem I absolutely adore. It has a simple but satisfying premise executed utterly perfectly, complete with all of the magic Game Freak's games had during the GBA era. Man, am I desperate for a sequel.
No comments:
Post a Comment