Drill Dozer

Game Freak is a name the overwhelming majority of players associate exclusively with Pokémon. But now and then the studio allowed itself a detour away from its monstrous gold mine — and Drill Dozer from 2005 is the best demonstration that it can do something completely different too.

You play as a girl named Jill, who squeezes into a mech equipped with a giant drill and sets off for revenge and for a stolen treasure. The whole game rests on one brilliantly simple idea: you have a drill for everything. You drill through walls, crush enemies, turn gears and locks, spin propellers and climb upward — drilling here is movement, attack and puzzle-solving all in one.

The magic lies in how tangibly the whole thing works. The drill can be shifted into different gears, so you tune between speed and power depending on the situation. The feeling when you bite into an obstacle, build up revolutions and finally gnaw your way through to the other side is unexpectedly satisfying — Game Freak squeezed the most out of this single mechanic.

The technological cherry on top was that the cartridge contained a vibrating rumble module. While drilling, the game buzzed pleasantly in your hands and the physical feel of drilling through was heightened even further. On the GBA it was a rare gimmick that pushed the game closer to actually holding a running machine.

The levels are cleverly designed — they combine platforming action with exploration and puzzles into which the drill is worked in a little differently each time. Visually the game is colorful, striking and full of the distinctive character Game Freak never lacked.

Drill Dozer stayed rather off the main radar, but among connoisseurs it counts as an original and heartfelt title of a kind that rarely came to the console. It's proof that even the creators of one of the most successful gaming phenomena had the urge to really play around with an idea.

Why play: An original platformer built on a single, beautifully tuned drilling mechanic — Game Freak outside Pokémon in its best form.