Japanese mobile phone mascot heads to European shores
Docomodake is something of an icon in this home country of Japan. As the mascot of the biggest mobile phone provider in the country, the cute looking mushroom character has spawned a wide variety of merchandise, everything from key-rings to cuddly toy right through to his own videogame for Nintendo DS, the upcoming platform game, Boing! Docomodake DSConsidering that the majority of people in Europe are never likely to have heard of Docomodake, never mind Mama Docomodake, Grandpa Docomodake and the rest of the Docomodake clan, it’s an odd choice of character to bring over to our shores, rather like launching a game starring Howard, the bespectacled star of the Halifax television adverts, in Japan. Nevertheless, despite its meaningless title, it’s a game that deserves not to be overlooked. If you’re a fan of the platform genre, missing out this cleverly designed, thoroughly entertaining and challenging platform puzzler would be a travesty.
In many ways, Boing! Docomdake is a typical platform game, with much of its inspiration predictably taken from the likes of the Super Mario games. Coin collecting, platform hopping and block pushing are integral parts of the gameplay, while much of the level design, on the surface anyway, has many similarities to some of well-known platform games.
Where Boing! Docomodake differs, however, is in the unique abilities of its main character and how these abilities challenge you to think outside of the conventional platforming box in order to progress through each stage and navigate the environment.
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