Drilling Time

Let's take a break from books for a while. Remember the video game handheld console from the 2000's called the DS Lite? In case you don't, I will briefly summarize.

The DS Lite, made by the Nintendo company, is a handheld gaming device with dual screens (hence the acronym "DS") that utilizes a few buttons and a little stylus pen. What makes this device so nifty is that it has the functionality to play game cartridges from an earlier handheld console called the Game Boy Advance (created by Nintendo in the year 2001; this was an upgraded version of the Game Boy Color from the late 1990's). This meant that players can choose to play current games of that time while also having the ability to play games from the older Game Boy Advance cartridges.

One such older game that stands out is Drill Dozer (cartridge pictured below), one of the later games made for the Game Boy Advance and can also be played on the DS Lite.

In this video game you control a girl named Jill who is part of a gang family led by her father. After thieves beat up her dad and steal a precious family jewel that belonged to her mother that passed away, Jill sets out with her Drill Dozer robot-mecha to get the jewel back. In her adventures she encounters rival gangs and even the police and security forces of the city. The Drill Dozer she pilots will help her break through walls, twist mechanical screws to solve puzzles, and even help her jump to get to high places!

The game has a very unique story for its setting, and it is such a joy to play on the nostalgic DS Lite console. It feels like going back in time to appreciate the game developers' technological and story creativity at that time in the 2000's.

The game is also quite rare now, fetching a very high price if you want to purchase it online. I was lucky enough to have bought this game at Toys R Us in the last half of the 2000's at a very low price in a bargain bin!

If you manage to find this game and happen to own a DS Lite or Game Boy Advance, I highly recommend picking it up. You will be impressed by the creativity and nice graphics the game has to offer, and the brand new sealed copies contain a mini comic strip about Jill right before she gets out there to recover the stolen jewel. I will post pictures of that comic strip eventually, but until then please enjoy the below pictures of the game: