Doodle Devil (PS VITA)

Before "Doodle Devil" ever made it's jump over to the PS Vita it was actually a mobile game for such formats as iOS. The game's layout, and gameplay mechanics are of the simplest kind, and use simple point and click icon/element combinations to sway the outcome of mankind's fate. Doodle Devil itself takes in account the devil's job to end mankind, and his goal to bring about the final war. As the gamer you play as the devil, and combine various elements in order to create the things necessary to bring about the end. The elements range from your basic fire, wind, and water elements to various forms of life itself. Mankind, it's ideals, and it's inventions also play a crucial role in getting the devil what he wants. On the devil's side there's also the influence of various sins which change the eternal balance in his favor. By simply clicking on, and combining certain groups of two elements you can in essence ruin creation.

Playing "Doodle Devil" is fairly straightforward in a match making puzzle solving sense of the word. On your screen you'll find a couple of pages filled with icons representing the elements that you can work with. By clicking on one, and then another you will merge them to become something else entirely. Of course it goes without saying that you must match things correctly otherwise your combination will not work. When you first begin your work as the devil you will be given only a couple of icons/elements to work with, but as you continue to correctly combine elements more will be made available to you. If I remember correctly there's the "Human" element, and the "Sin" element to work with first. As with the biblical scriptures on the same subject you'll find that combining sin with humans will set into motion the pathway to their future demise. Since these two elements can be combined more elements will spawn on the two pages that make up the playing field, and will in turn make for new possibilities. As such more possibilities beget more possibilities.

With every elemental combination that you successfully pair up you'll be one step closer to bringing about mankind's final chapter. Things like the introduction of the seven deadly sins, and other natural elements will ultimately be the deciding factor of man's fate assuming you can pair all of the elements together properly. Thrown in for good measure you'll also find plenty of humorous, and recognizable quotes from famous persons across the globe. Among the inspirational contributors You'll find Mark Twain, Robin Williams, and even some websites I don't know from Adam (Biblical Joke ^.^). To spice things up the developer of the game has also included some epic background music to fit in with the whole "Good vs Evil" theme. While the music, and elements are pretty darn consistent you'll find that by completing the necessary element combos you'll be blessed, ore rather damned by an intermission screen giving you details on the devil's current progress.

If you are having issues doing your devilish deeds fret not, because there is a hint system available. To the left of your screen you'll find a light bulb drawing, and a drawing of a group of light bulbs. When the single light bulb is colored yellow you'll be able to press the "TRIANGLE" button, or tap the image on the screen to bring up two element groups that could have a possible match. It won't show you what the match is, but at least you'll know you're looking in the right place. As far as the group of light bulbs go it is your shortcut to getting hints quicker. At the beginning of your playthrough you'll have a total of ten of these hint shortcuts available. When you run out of hint shortcuts you will have to rely on the timer refill to do it's thing before you can get another hint. The developer didn't want to make the game super easy, so they implemented these hint options.

I should probably also mention that when playing "Doodle Devil" you can either use the PS Vita's touch screen for everything, or you can use the Left Thumbstick along with the respective TRIANGLE, SQUARE, CIRCLE, and X buttons as an alternative. I found that both methods are easy to use, and that it basically boils down to your personal preference as a gamer. If you like tablet-like touch screen functionality then you'll be able to enjoy that on your PS Vita. If you prefer to press buttons, and use thumbsticks then you'll find that that option is just as user friendly as the alternative method.

With all things weighed I'm gonna have to say that for the type of game it is $5.99 is a bit steep for "Doodle Devil". Does that mean it's a bad game? No, not at all. The game is a fun time waster, and gives you some proper puzzle work to go over. In reality though it's not an in-depth game. It's more, or less a biblical lesson in chain of events via match making. If the game were to go for a little less then I could easily recommend it. Experiencing what I've experienced though keeps me from doing so. If you are into the whole "Good vs Bad" theme, or end times scenarios then this might be something worth looking into though. It has a subtle hint of real world relativity, and actual coincides with a lot of mankind's past, present, and future experiences. The various quotes which are thrown in are also interesting to read if you like that sort of thing. I should also mention that the inclusion of fabled monsters such as vampires, werewolves, and Cthulhu make for an interesting addition to the already interesting gameplay.