The Good
- Vibrant and colorful cartoony graphics
- Built in rumble feature adds force feedback
- Innovative platformer
- Bonus areas, treasure hunt and upgradeable drills add replay value
The Bad
- Predictable mundane story
- Main game is short
- Difficulty can be very hard
The Story
You play as Jill, an ordinary looking schoolgirl, except for the wildly pink hairdo. Her father is the head honcho to a gang of thieves called the Red Dozers. One night, the evil Skullker gang breaks into Jill and her father’s headquarters, injures Dad and pilfers the Red Dozers greatest treasure... the Red Diamond! Jill and her Drill Dozer set off on a quest to recover the diamond and find themselves face to face with an evil mastermind who intends to take over the world!Features
- Built in rumble feature adds to the gaming experience.
- Training Zone to practice drilling techniques.
- 6 diverse areas to explore. Each area contains 2 missions and a secret area.
- Ability to upgrade your dozer with gears, tougher drill bits and energy tanks.
- Can save anywhere within a mission.
- 31 secret treasures to collect to show off your mastery of Drill Dozin'.
The Game
The Drill Dozer is a round fat mech with a huge drill bit attached. This drill and your wits are your only weapons. Just about everything in the game can be drilled; walls, enemies, floors, furniture, etc... There are also several gadgets such as lifts, locks and tunnels that require the drill to maneuver through. The controls are easy to learn and make use of the shoulder buttons to activate the drill. The drill can be upgraded by finding gears within each level. It’s necessary to find these gears as the 3rd gear is often needed to destroy certain doors and make particular jumps. The bit can also be upgraded to the point where it even drills through steel blocks. You can also purchase energy tanks to extend your life bar a la Metroid.
There are 6 missions with a couple areas in each, plus a special secret unlockable zone. You'll find yourself creeping through an art museum, exploring an ancient ruin, taking to the skies and going underwater by adding a propeller to your Drill Dozer. You’ll also escape from a prison ruled by a bad guy (that suspiciously looks like Wario), and for the finale find yourself battling against a gigantic drilling machine. The levels are very creative and require ingenious use of the drill to get through them.
Boss battles are very challenging at first until you find their weak spots, then it becomes a snap. After finishing the game you have the option of buying maps to unlock secret areas and going back to search for treasures. These treasures are difficult to find and typically require tricky use of the drill along with jumping to get them. The treasure hunt and secret areas add nice replay value to a game that is fairly short.
The game can be saved within a mission so you don't have to start the level all over again when you quit. This is very helpful as some of the missions can be quite long.
The cartridge is a little bigger than most GBA games as it has a built in rumble feature. A very cool gimmick that adds to the game, it is immensely satisfying to feel the whir of the Game Boy as you hit 3rd gear and start plowing through your enemies. No extra batteries are needed for the rumble feature, unlike the Game Boy Color rumble cartridges.
A very fun game that will have you wishing for your very own real life Drill Dozer!
Parents Tips
Rated E for Everyone. Contains cartoon violence, enemies simply explode or go poof when drilled.