Sometimes we like to spread out games of the same genre, and sometimes we like to group them together in what you might call a "theme". Well, today the theme is simple idea, mouse-play games, and this next one goes nicely with the previously reviewed, Reverse 2. In fact, this one might pose an even greater challenge by following close behind. =)
Drag the Dot is a simple Flash game, created by Oliver Castañeda of Scarsdale, New York, in which the objective is literally self-explanatory: Just drag the dot to the goal in each of the game's 16 levels. There is lots of movement and animation happening to thwart your advance, but thankfully there is no time limit and no limit to the number of tries you can take to complete each level. I especially like the fact that you can stop dragging to take a breath without the dot returning to the starting point. The 'magnetic' sticks that rotate relative to the mouse position is also a nice feature, and creates an additional challenge to the simple gameplay formula.
Oliver promises that the final 'boss' level is "better than doom" (whatever that means), but you'll have to take his word for it because I can't quite seem to get there. Twice I've tried but I've either closed or reloaded my browser window and lost my progress. Therefore, an improvement to the game I would like to see is selectable levels, perhaps even unlocked as you advance, so you may return at any time without having to go through all the completed levels over again.
Well, I personally found the game frustrating after a while. Having a touchpad instead of a mouse is definately not the easiest thing in the world to have a steady hand with.
To be honest, I didn't think that the boss was "better than doom." :/ but, maybe that's because I don't have the humor to be amused by
a giant mouth with legs and eyes.
I saw olliver through the steps of making this game, and he really put alot of time into it. It is a well thought out game, with many new additions to the not so new genre. It's loads of fun, and you should all play it!
As for the main post describing the game, I believe Oliver meant "Doom", as in the game, not doom as in damnination, because someone on Newgrounds compared his boss to that of the boss in Doom... I think.
Cheers oliver,
IDS
That was a lot more fun than I thought it would be! The responsive animation (like the magnets and the expanding boxes etc.) made it unique. Some more sound effects would have been nice, but I like the game well enough as it is.
Very Interesting...Hubby will like this while sitting on conference calls...I will bookmark it for my students on free time.
It was much easier than I expected. Good little game, it was fun for about 15 minutes. A switch for the music would've been appreciated, but other than that, no complaints. :)
GO OLIVER!!
love
Morgan
The boss is better than doom, but then again I've never played doom, olny watched.
That was quite fun, but I enabled "click-lock" on my mouse driver just for this game to fend off carpal tunnel syndrome from squeezing the mouse. Ouch. ;-) Losing the drag at the edges was a little frustrating.
Lovely movements. Blocky graphics in black and white adds a lot of charm to this game. Making the ball and goal red (or whatever) wouldn't hurt, but anything more might.
This is really picking nits, but flipping the start/end locations between levels could streamline play.
I missed some sort of sound or message when the point hit things and returned to the start. It was so small that I ccould not even see it under the cursor so I kept dragging even after the point was not with me anymore.
Also, the game can be played by loading swf directly without html, in which case you play at full screen. Bigger screen is so much easier.
ok im adicted already nice game although using a touch pad on a lap top isnt the nest thing to play this game with specially this one lol smilexxx
Better then doom? The boss is better then all the Megaman bosses put together!
But I don't really get why the game gives instructions how to kill the boss before last level. Spoils the fun somewhat.
Overall concept for this type of game rocked.
I just really really wish the game would have expanded with more drag features. Levels 1-5 are ok, but after that they should involve a concept more then something about finding an opening. Multple arrows would have fun, having blocks that move towards the dot within only a certain perameter cool, or more labyrnth with a more quest type feel for the overall game.
And the boss should atleast have a couple of those elements from the levels 1-5 so it isnt just run back and forth. Teleports all around the map would have been the best solutions so when you click you will have to remember the pattern more..
Kudos on the game Oliver. Also reminds me of an old classic Atari game that was similiar style but very focused as a quest.
yay that was mad fun, props to the creator, keep up the good work dude
Mai - thanks, you ruined the game for me. Spoilers, please?
I would desperately like a save point. It's 1am where I am!
I've added the spoiler tags to Mai's post. Sorry, I try to do that myself if I see that someone has forgotten to use them.
yay! i beat it! level 15 really annoyed me though, because my hand started to get unsteady. :(
but yay for oliver!
Hey guys, i just paid for some extra bandwidth to kill those ads. I'm glad a bunch of you like it, i know it can get frustrating, especially on a laptop. On a lighter note, the next game is well on it's way!
Great news, Oliver implemented passwords. Now there's very little reason not to play it :D
I didn't think it'd be as entertaining as it was. Though the traps were just simple flash tricks, they were used in a compelling manner.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that someone had made a highly-polished colorful version of this at some point.
I'm so addicted to this game already. It was a good way to pass the day yesterday at work.
When I came back in today, I had a problem with the password. I know for a fact that the password is correct but I can't seem to start the game at the level I was on. Am I missing something?
no, it's probably my fault about the passwords, they were implemented midnight on a school night and given jumbles of my friends names. Sorry, i'll try to fix em if i can.
By the way, this game has really gotten around, this week it's landed on addictinggames front page. All thanks to this one review. Ahhh.. i love the internet.
Thanks for the acknowledgment, oliver. =)
We missed out on huge Digg traffic for your game due to someone posting it there immediately upon seeing it appear here in our RSS feed. But she posted a direct link to the game rather than to our review so the traffic bypassed us altogether.
It would appear that freewebs has stopped sponsoring my bandwidth, don't know how that happened (i only went over my limit by 600%...) well it does happen to be hosted on plenty of other sites, so not to worry.
It looks like it's back online now, but if that should ever happen again, please bring your games to me and I'll host them for you.
The last level and boss are among the most annoyingly frustrating designs ever. Probably compounded by my being on a trackpad.
The last level because the crushing blocks introduced in the instructions don't even show up until most of the way through the last level, so figuring out how to get past them requires a 2 minute restart to get through the level again. The boss simply because it ignores the mechanics of the rest of the game, and it's so hard to grab the dot again after letting it go.
Please help on level 16!! I can't get past the 4th bit with the snappers!! I've tryed for A-G-E-S!!!! help!!
x
won it.
if anyone wants it heres the boss code
vicdavarton
Cool game, very addictive. But some of the collision detection isnt that good, quite frustrating.
Why must people include such short loops, then omit sound-off buttons?
Love the game though - specially the inventiveness on the penultimate level!
passwords for
10 -
killdeer
11 -
springs
12 -
popewired
13 -
decemberists
14 -
lunarman
15 -
almost
16 -
frogmonster
17 -
vicdavarton
Great game! Had fun with it!
Congrats, Oliver!
pretty decent game and very tough to design in terms of programming so kudos to you oliver. I also found a much more effective way to defeat the boss.
Tip in Defeating the Boss on the last stage:
Keep in mind that the boss' healthbar dosent hurt your dot. Hence you have the whole screen to your advantage. Keeping in mind that the boss ONLY attacks the dot, slowly get it to follow the dot over to a corner (provided that you have enough space to escape) and then quickly drag the dot to the bottom opposite corner or vise versa (such as dragging the dot to the top right and then placing it to the bottom left)
since the beast is more slower when going straight than it is on turning, you can do more damage by clicking on monster 4-9 times as opposed to 1-2 when your moving the dot in random places. after you think you did enough clicks, move the dot out of harms way and repeat the process.
remember to keep in mind to move the dot while you rapidly click on the monster
I got to level 3 then found a cheat... works for most games like this, impossible quiz, Q 102 dont touch squares and 106 dont touch off the road.
HOLD LEFT MOUSE BUTTON
if it doesnt work, right click, then click the end.
[Edit: uh, then what's the point of even playing? -Jay]
Link doesn't work anymore...
Huh, link worked for me... Maybe you need... something-or-other. Sorry, not nearly as computer-savvy as the rest of the people who usu. do this.
Also, Jay, there's no particular point in playing this one but in the case of the impossible quiz there's a lot more minigames than avoid games. It's actually ridiculusly fun. In fact, there are some minigames requiring you to use that little "cheat"
Oh yeah, and the game is great too. I figured out the clackers pretty quick, but they were still a pain in the neck to get through. In the farther two I found it much easier to just sneak by them. I like how some of the traps require you to
release the dot
(or at least it's easier to do so) making this a much more original game than most in the genre.
I don't know why, but the link doesn't work for me...
And Travis, I think that's a Flash thing, doesn't matter though.
[Edit: Fixed. Thanks for the note. :) -Jay]
Great game but "The Hardest Game Ever" is harder and better than this.
six years later it's still wicked good.
for some reason i think a mouse may track better than a wacom pen [otoh, that may just be my wacom pen {or, in fact, it may just be, um, me}. yeah].
Update