doodle jump

Doodle Jump was quite a hit when it landed on Windows Phone last summer. Casual audiences loved the intuitive tilt controls, simple gameplay, and endearing artwork, and some hardcore players dug the heinously difficult Xbox Live Achievements. Kinect owners will be pleased to learn that Doodle Jump is coming to Xbox 360 this year too. Will it translate to motion controls as well as last year’s Fruit Ninja Kinect?

Kotaku has posted an exclusive video (non-embeddable unfortunately) of Xbox 360 Doodle Jump in action. It provides the first concrete details of how Doodle Jump will work on XBLA. First off, it requires the Kinect to play. Gamers will control the Doodler’s hops by stepping left and right. Pointing your arms fires at enemies, while flapping works Doodler’s Icarus wings. While you'll be moving around a lot, this game looks less strenuous than Fruit Ninja Kinect.

Interestingly, the developers at Lima Sky and Smoking Gun Interactive didn’t just paste in motion controls and call it a day. Whereas the original Doodle Jump’s levels are random and completely endless, the 360 version now has non-random levels with a beginning and end. A meter at the right side of the screen shows the Doodler’s progress as he climbs the level. The video also reveals new platforms, hazards (such as landmines), and backgrounds. These additions make the Kinect game look more like a sequel than a port; I’m definitely excited for it.

Doodle Jump comes to Xbox 360 as a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game later this year. No specific date or price has been set. WPCentral will be sure to let you know when it arrives.

Source: Kotaku

Earlier this week, we reported on Doodle Jump (see review) getting an v1.1 update for Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone. Surprisingly, the update was non-Mango specific and instead seemed to be for long awaited bug fixes/enhancements (we're working on the changelog, sit tight--rumor has it the busted UFO achievement is now obtainable).

Now it looks like the devs had a two-pronged approach: bug fixes/enhancements for everyone now and a separate Mango-only update for the rest. Seems like a smart way from dividing your audience. So far the only thing we noticed is fast-app switching i.e. multi-tasking, but we'll see what else we can find. You can download v1.2 now in the Marketplace right here. Thanks, Julian W., for the heads up!

WPCentral continues our Xbox Live Developer Interview series by speaking with Game House's Ken Murphy. GameHouse, a division of RealNetworks, is truly a casual gaming juggernaut, with too many PC games to count and three Windows Phone titles so far. In this interview, Ken graciously discusses the casual game genre, the Doodle Jump Achievement that nobody has unlocked, and lots more.

Head past the jump for the full, fantastic interview.

The 6 Weeks of Must Have Games is in full effect. Following on the heels of Hydro Thunder Go comes this week’s Xbox Live release, Doodle Jump. It’s out now on the Marketplace.

Doodle Jump is the progenitor of the jumping game subgenre. It distills the essence of platformers – jumping onto platforms, avoiding death by falling, and defeating enemies – into a simpler game. Here players control the Doodler by tilting the phone. He’s always jumping, so you only need to worry about where you’re going to land, collecting powerups, and tapping enemies to kill them.

The Windows Phone version of Doodle Jump (like Pocket God before it) contains the main game but loses a bit of content. Namely, a few themes are missing. Each theme changes the appearances of Doodle Jumper and his enemies as well as completely changing the background. Five themes are currently included on Windows Phone: Original, Halloween, Christmas, Jungle, and Space. For those keeping track, indie clone MonsterUp (similar if not better in quality) only has three themes right now, so Doodle Jump still has the leg up there.

Doodle Jump is a monster hit on other platforms. It’s extremely cute and easy to play. The Windows Phone version costs $2.99 and there is a free, short trial. Jump on it here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

We’ve lavished plenty of praise on Karios Games’ MonsterUp in our review and coverage of its frequent updates. MonsterUp is a Doodle Jump-clone that surpasses the original in many ways. It’s also that very rare thing, a truly high-quality indie game for Windows Phone.

MonsterUp is already a great value at its standard price of $1.99. That’s why it’s exciting to announce that the game is on sale for half off this weekend, April 16-17. Grab it now and start unlocking a variety of lovable jumping monsters!

Grab MonsterUp here (Zune link) on the Marketplace. There is a free trial, but for 99 cents, what have you got to lose?  Not familiar with MonsterUp?  Follow the break for a video demo.

Indie developer Karios Games’ MonsterUp is a jumping game, much like DoodleJump. Unlike DoodleJump, though, MonsterUp is a Windows Phone 7 exclusive. Our review praises its controls, character designs, and cheerful atmosphere. The dashing, eloquent reviewer just wished for more environments to jump through. With MonsterUp’s version 1.7 update, his pleas for variety have been answered.

Game designer Marios Karagiannis claims that version 1.7 is “the most important and feature rich” revision so far. He’s not lying!

Dynamic Mode

First off, the new update adds something no other jumping game (not even DoodleJump) has seen so far: the Dynamic game mode. Traditionally in these games, when the player character jumps off one side of the screen, it comes out the other side, much like Pac-Man or Asteroids. Dynamic Mode mixes things up by centering the camera firmly on the player’s monster. Instead of jumping off one side and coming out the other, the game’s platforms simply loop around the player. Gameplay does not fundamentally change – the same difficulty and game logic remain. Yet it does add a drop of flair that I quite enjoy. Standard and Dynamic Modes are selectable before each game, and they also share the same Leaderboard.

Fresh and tasty environments

The platform arrangements in jumping games are randomly generated, so each playthrough is different than the one before it. Still, without the visual variety of different environments, it can feel like you’re just playing the same level over and over. MonsterUp now has two brand themes (environments) to bounce around. Lemonade Madness drops the monsters into a giant lemonade glass, while Sweet-o-mania contains a colorful array of cupcakes, cookies, and lollipops. Both stages retain MonsterUp’s signature bright and gleeful aesthetic, plus they just taste great. The original theme, Countryside, is also selectable. I recommend against eating the countryside.

Hop past the break for more details on the update and a video of Dynamic Mode.

While we have heard countless rumors about Angry Birds coming to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has announced today that the popular game will be heading to Windows Phones. It joins five other titles that are expected to hit the Marketplace on April 6th as Xbox Live games.

The other gaming titles include:

• Doodle Jump - Jump your way up an unending series of platforms
• Plants vs. Zombies - Defend yourself from a Zombie attack with garden plants
• HydroThunder Go - Long standing boat racing game
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 - Classic Sega platform game
• GeoDefense - Tower defense game

No pricing information was available but it's nice to see several of these titles coming to the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Source: WindowsTeamBlog