Doodle Jump is still hopping nearly a decade on [Retro Review]

Revisiting one of the most iconic mobile games ever released.

Mobile gaming has come a long way since 2010 — thanks to the crazy processing power of modern smartphones, we've reached the point where you can play console-quality games on the go. And yet, there's still something to be said for those games that offer a simple distraction in small doses.

Take Doodle Jump, a game that I was reminded of after seeing the arcade version at a local movie theatre. Doodle Jump was initially released as a paid app and quickly amassed millions of downloads in short order — at the time earning the acclaim of being the most downloaded iPhone app ever in 2010.

Of course, so much has changed since then and Doodle Jump has long since been surpassed in the App Stores by newer games, but the crazy thing is that revisiting this game in 2018 is still an absolute joy.

Doodle Jump is such a simple and intuitive game to pick up and play that literally anyone can figure it out in just a few seconds.

I think it comes down to the KISS acronym — keep it simple, stupid. Doodle Jump remains such a simple and intuitive game to pick up and play that literally anyone can figure it out in just a few seconds. It was also one of the first games to really make good use of the accelerometers in your phone to let you control your Doodler by subtly tilting your phone right and left, and arguably the best game to use such controls even to this day.

If you're like me and it's been some time since you've played Doodle Jump, you could download the app for free from the Google Play Store and it's still incredibly addictive. First of all, the developers have clearly been adding to the game over the years. There are a ton of different themes, power-ups, and over 100 missions.

Unfortunately, the "free" version of Doodle Jump is really hamstrung by all the ads scattered throughout, which is why I got more enjoyment out of the GameStash version of the game, which is completely ad-free. And really, that's the way casual games like this were meant to be played!

See at GameStash