DodoGo! Review

Lemmings: The Prequel.

Once upon a time, before Achievements and Gamertags, before 3D and analog sticks, there existed a captivating game called Lemmings. It was the little game that could, innocently simple and deceptively challenging, and it was enjoyed by all across the land far and wide. But few know the story of the adventure before the adventure, for before the Lemmings hatched, they were equally energetic (and equally stupid) as eggs. This is that story. This is Lemmings: Episode 0.

[image1]Okay, maybe that’s not the actual intro to DodoGo!, but it definitely should have been were it not for those pesky copyright laws. If you liked Lemmings, you’ll love this game. If not, well, I hear there’s a new Halo game coming out soon or something like that.

In DodoGo!, the vile alligator (or is that crocodile?), Vinicus, is out for a good meal, and Dodo eggs are the only things on the menu. Vinicus displays Team Rocket-level relentlessness in his determination to eat the sweet little bird eggs, so it’s up to you to save them. Fortunately, these are no mere embryos: The eggs have personality, awareness, and even mobility. Unfortunately, they’re dumber than rocks and only know how to move forward in a straight line.

You’ll have a number of limited tools at your disposal with which to guide the eggs to their nest at the end of each level, dodging pitfalls, lava, dinosaurs, and generally everything that is harmful to a growing dodo’s health. These tools include rickety platforms, springs, ropes, shovels, and saws.

There’s nothing to complain about with the puzzles, except that none of them are really that challenging. You shouldn’t spend more than 15 minutes or so on a level before you figure out how to make it through, and from there it’s all about being efficient enough to beat the target time, which isn’t difficult either.

[image2]There is an extra dimension to the gameplay, however, in keeping your eggs happy. Dodo eggs are fickle specimens, it seems, and they get grumpy if they travel through water or fall too far. But they love moving at high speeds so slopes and springs put them in a good mood. Falling also causes them to crack, which you can repair with a band-aid but leaves the egg in less-than-perfect condition.

To get a perfect rank on a level, you need to beat the target time as well as have all your eggs happy and in perfect condition when they reach the end. Again, it isn’t very hard (I got perfect ranks on every level with minimal retries on the first playthrough), but it’s a nice added twist to the simple “get your guys to the goal” formula.

You’ve also got bonus levels peppered throughout the game, which have no time limit but challenge you to set up all your tools such that a robo-egg makes it to the end while grabbing 30 pickups along the way. These levels generally require much more specific actions than the regular ones and provide a bit more of a challenge – still not surpassing the 15 minute rule, though. The rewards for bonus levels include avatars and costumes for your eggs.

The game is surprisingly lengthy for a mere 800 point download, spanning eight chapters with ten levels/tutorials and two bonus levels each. The amount of content in the game is definitely satisfying, but it also maddeningly stops right in the middle of the story! Just before the last chapter, Vinicus flees to new islands other than the one you spend most of the game on, and the map expands to show all of these new locales just begging for you to save their precious eggs. But after just one more chapter of chasing Vinicus, the game cuts right to the credits. You don’t often see such a ballsy gesture of impending sequel-dom. (Or are we now at the point where we’ll have DLC for our DLC? Madness!)

At any rate, DodoGo! is a cute and entertaining puzzler that will keep you occupied for a while on the cheap. To think, if only they had someone like you at the helm, the dodo may never have gone extinct.