Doodle Hex

For many players, the fact that the incredibly simple premise of drawing is entirely tainted by the need to spend many hours on the game may be off putting. However, for those people who have the time to put more than seven to ten hours into a game, Doodle Hex is incredibly rewarding. With a rich and fulfilling battle system, and an interesting (albeit slightly contrived) storyline, is entertaining. This title is a must for all fans of anything challenging or difficult.

As hardened gamers, we love really original ideas, especially when they’ve been implemented with care and attention to detail.

It feels like more of a launching point for a fresh fighting mechanic than a game that fully makes something of it. We're interested to see what they do wtih the Wii version. [Aug 2008, p.64]

Hardcore Harry Potter action that's almost too involved for its own good.

Succumb to its infectiously deliberate pace and there's plenty to uncover in Doodle Hex. However, if it's immediate gratification you're after, with the minimum of endeavour, then there's perhaps just a bit too much here to suit your fancy.

A solid, good-looking game that gets a bit bogged down in its own complexity. [Issue#26, p.79]

It works well enough but soon becomes very boring because essentially all you're doing is drawing paterns as fast as you can. [Aug 2008, p.102]

There is strategy here but it's too specific for its own good; certain moves must be countered in certain ways or you'll take damage. This is a shame, because Doodle Hex shows a lot of promise.

There's just not enough to the game, and by the time you're frantically scribbling increasingly complicated symbols in order to chip away the health of some super-blocking AI opponent, the initially appealing simplicity of the concept proves a hindrance rather than a help.

It's just that, somewhere along the line, they forgot to add any enjoyment or sense of reward to the actual game.

It’s not a bad little game and they’ve definitely played to the strengths of the DS, it’s just a shame there isn’t more to it.

On the whole, Doodle Hex is a fundamentally solid game that sadly fails to capitalise on its strengths in a number of crucial ways.