Flight Doodle Review

For those of you who can't tell by the screenshots, Flight Doodle is an avoidance/high score game that incorporates bits and pieces from some other well known games to try to create what I would call an "all star" package.

You start as a balloon, any kind of balloon that you would like (you can even design your own balloon), on a mission to go up. Unfortunately, there are thumbtacks (or darts, or missiles, etc... you get to choose) raining down that you must avoid. Along the way there are power boosts (like the power boosts you get in Ninjump) that will help you get up a ways and some goodies that you can arm yourself with, including a missile launcher, a shield, and more.

Moving around the screen is controlled by tilt, a la Doodle Jump, but the tilt mechanism is a bit tricky. Unlike Doodle Jump, the response is not instantaneous... there is some drag that I guess could be attributed to the wind and the fact that you are a slow moving hot air balloon. Making snap avoidance moves doesn't work so well, and large swooping avoidance moves are hard to control, so to succeed, you have to start avoiding the objects early, and you absolutely must keep control.

Just a word of advice. You should definitely change the tilt sensitivity right away. The default is way too slow.

With a bit of practice, you'll get the movement down, but the lack of precise controls does make the game feel like it is a bit less in your hands. While in Doodle Jump I feel that my losses are due to my over-twitchy hands; in Flight Doodle I feel as if they are partially due to dumb luck.

Flight Doodle definitely has all the elements that any real avoidance/high score gamer would want, but the movement issues will cause some to go nuts. It's a good game with great doodle style though, so if the genre is your thing, pick this one up.