Doing It Right: Smoke’s Review

I’m a politically incorrect term

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The Mobile gaming genre is a category I usually leave to Hannibal to review on the blog, but every so often a mobile game will come out on PC as well as IOS and Android. Doing It Right is one of these games, and I grabbed a copy to play for the blog. It’s a small simple game, but is it worth trying out yourself? Hopefully I can help you answer that with this review.

Doing It Right Information

Developer: Kostiantyn Aleksandrov.
Release Date: June 10, 2020.
Genre: Bop It style puzzle
Platform: IOS, Android, & Windows.
Price: $1.99 – $2.00
Demo: Yes
Download: itch.io/doing-it-right

Developer’s Description

Doing it Right is an audio puzzle with brain-busting challenge. Test your hearing and logic.
Follow the sound instructions and win the game. With each chapter and level instructions will become more difficult and mental discomfort stronger. Try to test yourself. It is harder than it seems at first sight.
The game consists of two modes: an endless and a normal one. A normal mode includes 9 chapters (50+ levels), while an endless mode can be played endlessly.

Lets Give It a Play

What Is The Game Really?

I thought maybe this would be puzzley, mainly because it is described by the developer as a puzzle game. However it is more of a Bop It or Simon says style game. I get that this could probably be considered a puzzle game, but really only because there isn’t a better box to put it in. This was a bit disappointing once I found it out, but I still plowed on and went ahead with the playing.
The game is broken down into chapters with levels in each chapter. There is a non-changing sequence you have to follow in each level. Once you do this you progress to the next level. After you successfully do all the levels in a chapter you move on to the next chapter.
On PC you are only using the arrows, and you either press right, left, up, or down. I assume on a phone you’ll be swiping in the direction the TTS tells you to. Sometimes an arrow will be a color instead of a direction; like down being blue or left being green. In addition to the colors, a direction can also be a sound. These are one thump or another, nothing too difficult or hard to follow.
You are either told to press a button, not to press a button, or not to not press a button, or not to not not press a button. This works most of the time except for when it doesn’t and when following the directions results in you failing the level. More on that later though.

First Impressions & Review

I actually got some sort of weird enjoyment from this game…at the beginning. After playing it for a while I realized this was simply because I was expecting it to turn into one thing, not what it actually is. Once colors were introduced I saw it becoming more challenging and interesting, but it really never does.
After chapter one I was interested, and looking forward to what it would turn into as it got more difficult. After a couple more chapters I was still optimistic, just believing it was building up slow. It was at this time I messaged Hannibal to get his opinion. These types of games are not my thing normally, so I wanted a second opinion. Our conversation went like this.

Smoke: I have a stupid game, but one that I find oddly amusing. Going to write a review for it, but I am wondering if I’m just (politically incorrect term)
Hannibal: Are you asking me to play it? or did you just want confirmation of you being (politically incorrect term). cause I can confirm that.
Smoke: yes.
Hannibal: Wow, ok you are (politically incorrect term)!
Smoke: I thought the same, but after a bit I found it oddly amusing.
Hannibal: I mean it is just bop it. that is all it is.

After playing up to chapter five I realized Hannibal was right. The game never really gets harder. You start getting sounds for arrows, and being told not to press certain buttons. This eventually turns into don’t not press a button which means press it. Then it morphs into don’t not not press a button which means don’t press it. These small changes really aren’t all that challenging, and it gets very repetitive, I had to give up before going crazy.
I gave up for two reasons. It was a game where you do the same thing over and over with nothing really changing in a meaningful way. Then mix that with the fact that when failing you have to listen to the TTS read out the instructions for the level again, and they are not skippable. This is both a cursing and a blessing. It is annoying, but it makes it really easy to just close the game and walk away from it.
Even though I was board with the game after chapter five, a couple days later I tried to push through for the review. I managed to keep going through until I got to some bugged out parts. I started being told don’t press this and that, but you are suppose to press that. For example “no right and up”, this means you should press up. I cannot figure out how this makes any sense, and I gave up. If you’re told don’t press right or up, that should mean you need to press down or left, not the case though. I was already not enjoying the game, this was the piece of straw that broke the back of the camel I never really liked anyway.
Is the game simple…yes. Is the game bad…not really. Is it a puzzle game…no. This really is just a Bop It game, and one that progresses very slow. I’m sure there are folks out there who would enjoy it, but I’m just not one of them. I never did the endless mode, not after figuring out it won’t ever require memory or sequences of buttons. Just do what you’re told forever…yeah no thanks. I really tried, but except for the night I was tired and gave it a try, it was not a fun game to play. Even then my enjoyment was based on expecting it to turn into a different game that would be more challenging in different ways.

Suggestions for Doing It Right

First off the TTS instructions need to be skippable. This would be simple enough to add. Just allow the player to swipe in a direction to shut the TTS up and get into the level. Having to listen to it once after failing is annoying, after two or three times it quickly becomes rage inducing.
Make it more of a puzzle game, not a Bop It game. Make each direction have the ability to be a color, a direction, and a sound all at the same time. This way you have to memorize the sounds, the colors, and the direction. Add in two colors for some directions, anything to make it more challenging. Just being told to not go right, go left, invert, that gets old really fast. I’d appreciate having my brain engaged more, not being forced to simply go into auto-pilot mode.
Make some of the levels randomized. It is all the more tedious when you fail towards the end of a level more than once and you have all the same button presses to get back to the point you failed at. This ended up being one of the biggest disappointments after realizing this was a Bop It game. Having everything predetermined with no randomizing was really ungood, and it really adds to the overall repetitive nature of the game.
If some of these were implemented into the game I think I would have actually enjoyed it. As it is there isn’t much to enjoy. After you play 3 levels you’ve already seen most of the game, and that isn’t a good way to lay out the game’s progression. If you are into very simple mobile games this would be good, but if you are a hardcore gamer this won’t even begin to scratch the itch. I didn’t play this on mobile, but I understand it would be more challenging with swiping gestures. That being said everything else still stands.
For what I believe is a developer’s first game this isn’t a bad title. There are areas where it can be built on and improved, but that is to be expected. I just don’t go into game reviews looking at how many games the developer has released in the past. All that matters is the game being played, and how it holds up in the genre it is presented in. This is a decent start, but it doesn’t have all that much to offer.

Score for Doing It Right

I reviewed this on PC, and honestly that isn’t where this game should be reviewed. That being set aside for now, it isn’t even a puzzle game, even though that’s what the description claims. It doesn’t involve anything but the simplest memory, no logic, and no brain busting. As far as Bop It style games, I guess it is fair to middling, but only on a mobile device. On PC it is not worth the price.

PC Rating: 3 / 10
Mobile Rating: 5 / 10
My Reviewing Criteria

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