Donut Dodo

I can't say enough great things about Donut Dodo. I only found out about this game through the UKVAC Forums a few weeks ago. Prior to that, I had no idea of its existence. I've never been a fan of playing games for high-scores. As a kid I'd only play Donkey Kong, Bubble Bobble, Snow Bros, etc to see how far I could get. Never ever felt the urge to rack up a huge score. I think it's because you would have to actively be going to arcades constantly to beat your opponents' scores. Then when SF2 appeared in the arcades (I was 11), the idea of high-scores (and scores in general) vanished. Donut Dodo is an unbelievable exception. At the time of writing I have played 113.4hrs and I'm number 8 on the leader board. Firstly, the game plays like how you THINK you remember those 80's classics playing... but the reality is that none of the 80's arcade greats had controls and hit detection like Donut Dodo. The game has been designed to encourage fast, haywire play with its lenient hitboxes, and it makes the game enjoyable beyond description. It wants you to skim the butts and noses of the mice as you slide down ladders. It wants you gamble dropping from ziplines and skimming the Dodo. It wants you to shave seconds off your time by making the crazy leap over the spike pit in Construction Site Chaos, only to land right at the nose of a flame and jump right over it; the tops of the flame licking your feet. The donut hitboxes are also very small, allowing you to deftly skim them without accidentally collecting them during a mad rush to reach the next in sequence. The short jump height also helps with this donut collectable/obstacle relationship. Conversely the bonus fruit hit boxes are large, allowing you to graze the bottom for collection (very important on the Fairground stage) to keep your momentum going. I love the fact that there are very few ways to get high scores - Donut Sequence, Bonus Fruits, Fast Stage Completion. That's it. Its simplicity is what makes it so rewarding. And the donut sequences are random each time you play it, so you can't rely on mechanical memorisation gameplay like Donkey Kong or BombJack - each time you play it you have to adapt and react to a new situation each time a donut is collected; changing your plan of action on the fly. I can't find any faults with Donut Dodo. If I was being pedantic I would like to have seen some original enemy designs. Having the toilet tribute to Jet Set Willy, Pacman Ghost, etc are nice touches, but some unique designs would have been interesting. Do yourself a favour and buy this immediately.