Puz: Digby's Donuts [by HipSoft]

Digby's Donuts was the winner of the real arcade contest.  In this contest hundreds of games were submitted to Real Arcade in the hopes of winning a $10,000 prize that Real used to convince everyone to use Real as their first though in distributing their games.

Though I'm obviously not impressed with Real Arcade and what I perceive as their extremely negative influence on the games community, I was even more surprised at the three games that were picked as the winners.  I tried to hold my skepticism in check as I played Digby's Donuts, but after playing for 30 minutes gave up and decided that my game tastes much not match the rest of the worlds' as I did not find this game to be enjoyable.

The game itself pulls concepts from several different games, the most recognizable being the old Atari made game KLAX.  As one of the people who played KLAX for hundreds of hours, I've been typically disappointed by games that incorporate the ideas of KLAX, but then provide a lesser game than the original. 

Digby's Donuts does do some things that I found to be very interesting and different.  In this game you own what will be a Donut franchise.  You move about the country opening different stores in different cities.  The way that you do this is by catching donuts as they fall from the top of the screen, and then aligning them correctly in the display tray.  Putting 3 or more donuts in a row will earn you a tip.  You have a tip Jar on the right side of the screen, and when it is full, then you move onto the next day. Each city you move on to the game play becomes a little more difficult.  New things are added, such as burn donuts that need to be put in the trash can and specific orders that need to be filled.  If you drop a donut, fill your case, or make the wrong order, your "Blunders" fill up and the game will end.

The main problem I had with this game was that I found no joy in playing it.  Though it was very similar to KLAX, the game play here is definitely different, adding its own wrinkles to the game, and ultimately removing the most entertaining pieces of the original KLAX game play.  That being said, I think the idea of giving the game more of a "Tycoon" game while keeping it a puzzle game is the strength of the game, and a very original and cool idea.  Of course there is also an arcade mode, but feeling like you are building franchise stores across the US while completing the donuts is really a mix of two genres that gives this game an interesting feel.  However, even that didn't keep me interested for long.  By Day 10 I was wondering how long I would have to keep playing the game.  By Day 29 when I finally failed on a level, I was playing half heartedly just waiting for the game to end so I could move on to something else.  Dropping donuts into the display case and trying to make the most use of the donuts that fell was only somewhat interesting and the franchise theme didn't over-ride my lack of interest.  Playing the game, I couldn't help but think back to KLAX and wish I was playing that game.

All things considered, I've decided that this game just didn't work for me.  I thought graphics were nice and clean, but lacked any real pizzazz, and the game play left me wanting more.  Still, this has already been a very successful game, and those who are big puzzle fans will likely enjoy this game and should at the least give it a try.  Hard core gamers will likely find the premise entertaining, but may walk away from the game feeling as though something was lacking.

Added: November 1st 2003
Reviewer: Russell Carroll
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Hits: 3922
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