There's no denying it, Doodle Jump is (or rather was) an incredibly popular title. Previously available on Windows Phone, Doodle Jump was pulled and has since been missing for those who have not yet downloaded it on their handsets.
Today we're pleased to relay news that the cute, little game has returned to Windows Phone 8 with many improvements included. Only one problem: it's no longer a Xbox Live title.
We've had a small play with the new version on Windows Phone 8 and we're impressed by how good it looks on the HD screens (720p, of course - ain't no 1080 'round 'ere). The gameplay also feels smoother and it's indeed optimised for the latest version of Windows Phone, which is a positive as we're not simply looking at the old builds being re-published.
As well as the included support for Windows Phone 8 with HD resolutions and the wide tile, it would appear as though Lima Sky (the creators of Doodle Jump) has taken back their title from Game House, who previously had the game published with Xbox Live support. We're not entirely sure what the situation is, but we're sure glad the little hopper is back for some more platforms.
- Doodle Jump - Windows Phone 8 - Store Link
Cheers, Jason, for the heads up!
Reader comments
Doodle Jump hops back onto Windows Phone 8, but drops Xbox Live support
OK, so I doubt many of you will get this far down the comments but I wanted to let you know, if you paid for the game in WP7 you can get a refund when you upgrade to WP8.
I was very annoyed when trying to re-download this onto my new Lumia1020 and it said I needed to pay.
I went to http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/how-to/wp-support selected the billing category and clicked the contact us button. It then opened a live chat and the rep gave me 400 points for Doodle Jump and refunded my card Fruit Ninja (which left me £2 up ;) )
WHY? WHY? WHYYYY???!!!! WP7.8 PHONES ARE LEFT BEHIND OR CAN BE CONCLUDED AS ABANDONED BY MICROSOFT! I'M SHIT FREAKING FRUSTRATED. UPDATE AND UPGRADE WP7 PHONES SO THAT IT CAN DOWNLOAD THE LATEST AND NEWEST APPS/GAMES OR ELSE I WILL SURELY CRITICIZE NOKIA MICROSOFT TO HELL! I'LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO DESTROY AND CRUSH NOKIA MICROSOFT WINDOWS PHONES!
Boooooooooo no Xbox LIVE
I loved this game, played it on my old XpressMusic and had the 2nd best high score in the world, but then they quit the highscore site for older phones. Got it from ovistore as a christmas present... ahh good times...
I will get it for my lumia.
I'm not sure if its just my phone but when i play this it seems to lock my phone (as if i have pushed the lock button)? obviously i've made sure i havent pushed it accidentally and it only happens in this app. Ativ S
I actually love this game, I really was sad when it was pulled off and I swear to god that yesterday I tried to look it up !!!
Wow if only Tango video chat gets rereleased for WP8 too. :D
Bought it once, refuse to buy it again
Isn't monster up much better?
Just went ahead and bought it. Kinda missing the android version frm last year but its available on wp finally. :)
Don't think I'll be buying this again, especially considering it lacks Xbox integration.
Should be free... I've brought this before.
It says it was optimized. I bought previous version. Tempted to rebuy...
The Good, The Bad and The ugly...
Achievements didn't use to matter to me. Now they kind of do and it is annoying, hehe.
For example I have not been able to flash GDR2 because I want to get all the achievements for Angry Birds (the old one) since I won't be able to get it again.
no xbox achievements.. wont buy
Too bad I would have picked this up again for some achievements like I did with fruit ninja. I still have the Xbox version on my Lumia 920. Liked this game a lot. Very hard to complete all the achievements though.
What the hell is this? I bought the stupid game and now i have to buy it again?
+1. I had to pay for the wpcentral app when it first came out and then again with wp8 I was like wtf! But still bought it didn't bother that much, but fruit ninja, sonic cd, and now shit jump. Still waiting for mini squadron to come back and that tentacles game that my daughter loved.
Yup sad how they making us pay double. Tentacles should have been back months ago....
I had the original installed up to last week didn't even know they pulled it out.
Free to buy and share!
Ah, why devs forgot to update their apps' description?
It prob says "free" because the developer copy pasted it from the iOS description.
+1. Only the word 'iOS' are replaced with 'Windows Phone'
+920 so sad all we get are lazy ports....
Agreed. Lazy on their part. Is it so hard to put an accurate description of the game your attempting to sell?
I think Monster Up is pretty cool...for this type of game.
Funny bounce is better
They pulled the main feature that makes WP gaming unique from the competition, and they don't have a trial? That sucks.
Yeah... description says free but it's not. Weird.. I'm gonna wait this one out
Everything is paid on WP8....WTH
Just an FYI, this isn't an update, it's a new app. So for people who already had it, you'll either have to pay (again? I don't remember if I paid the first time) or just live with the old version (assuming you kept it downloaded.)
Another major annoyance. If you had previously purchased it you have to buy it all over again. I used to own it on my Samsung Focus but it wants me to pay for it again. The game isn't worth buying it twice.
Which is pretty annoying since:
a) the last version isn't as smooth and lacks the new stuff added in this one
b) the new one doesn't have Xbox live branding
c) you'll have to shell out another $0.99 to buy the same game over again. For no reason.
I'm definitely not liking this trend of having to re-buy games to get new features. Thought Fruit Ninja was an one off thing but doesn't seem like it. Don't "punish" me for paying a higher price and supporting the dev community by purchasing it early on. Seems pretty unfair to mem
I bought the Xbox version and I won't buy it again dev rerelease games is not cool.
GameHouse Live ported and published the Xbox Live edition, this is done by Lima Sky who made the game.
Where the hell is my xbox game for today..? No game straight fr 3rd week.. Msft u suck fr this..,
It's probably left, along with the plethora of vowels missing from your post.
So what?
LOL!
Lolz
No achievements, no buy.
It's s weird how little I care about achievements but how much it matters to others...lol
Agreed. I put regular achievements into my game to appease the very vocal few, and I haven't heard any complaints since. It seems they want achievements in general, but don't really care about gamer score.
Not just achievements but Xbox achievements. They are a huge deal in the gaming community and, in my opinion, one of the smartest and most important things Microsoft did to increase the popularity of Xbox.
This is why it surprises me that more developers don't try to get Xbox certification on Windows Phone and Windows 8/RT. I realize that the process is slow and tedious and it needs to be revised, but I imagine getting that certification pays big dividends via increased promotion (via namebrand recognition, but also getting featured in the store and in the press), increased appeal (to those mobile gamers who, literally, only purchase Xbox-branded games--and there are a lot of them), leading to higher sales.
Thing is, we're seeing (and hearing) from devs that Xbox Live cert is *not* worth it. Evidently the Doodle Jump guys thought the same.
I'd rather have a frequently updated game than achievement, though I understand your rationale. But until it's fixed and devs want the cert, I'll do without.
+928
The thing is, if you're mostly a gamer with your smartphone, the lack of Xbox support becomes a question of "why bother?" In the case of Windows Phone, you're often getting the game later, and it's sometimes a mediocre port (see: the initial Doodle Jump), so it means that there is little incentive for gaming-centric smartphone users to care abotu the Windows Phone platform.
However, stick in the integration with your Xbox LIVE profile (assuming you're on the platform already, as I am), and you have a legitimate draw to Windows Phone gaming. Xbox LIVE multiplayer (on occasion), Achievements (meaning you can show off your game progress to friends on Windows Phone, as well as Xbox and Windows 8), and a Games hub with access to your profile and friends are all nice Windows Phone gaming services. Without that stuff, gaming on Windows Phone just seems like a lesser cosin of what you get with iOS and Android, and coupling that with the general dearth of apps pepole ask for, it just ends up another item in the list of reasons to NOT get a Windows Phone.
I might not be an Achievement whore (under 50% Achievment completion on my profile myself), but the Xbox LIVE integration is one of the major things that drew me to the platform (along with the UI and such). I would prefer to see the Xbox gamign optoins continue to expand. I'm sure you also would, but like you've said, the process is broken on a good day.
For me, who has never owned an Xbox console, Xbox on Windows Phone had a huge appeal in enabling me to finally get an Xbox profile and join my friends, most of who have 360s. I liked it so much that I preordered an Xbox One, the first console I will have purchased since the Dreamcast in 1999. Microsoft needs to fully exploit the potential that Windows Phone and Windows 8/RT have in boosting Xbox One appeal, and vice-versa (most of my 360-playing friends were immediately intrigued by Windows Phone and Surface RT when they learned I could play Xbox Live games on them).
That surprises me as I thought for sure that it would lead to higher sales, but perhaps I'm overestimating the number of gamers who care about accumulating Xbox achievements and the social nature of showing them off to other gamers. This also undermines my belief that one if Microsoft's big chances at chipping away at the iOS/Android duopoly in phones and tablets was to use their Xbox branding and achievements to distinguish their operating systems, but ostensibly the grand majority of mobile consumers are content playing "normal" games, which doesn't have as much appeal to me; I like the social aspect of Xbox profiles and friends and, consequently, prefer using the limited time I have to play videogames partaking in that. A non-Xbox videogame would have to be really really good to entice me to buy it over an Xbox-branded one.
It shouldn't, I had Xbox then switched to ps3 but I still don't care about achievements or trophies.
My question for you Daniel: Are you aware of any new developments for Xbox certification? I've been reading with interest about Microsofts new and improved indie program for Xbox One. Would you venture to say that those improvements will spill into Windows 8/RT and WP8?
May I ask why? I like and obviously get some sense of accomplishment when I unlock something in game (a level, a weapon, etc.) but achievements are just single line of texts for other people to see. I find this pointless. Each to their own, I guess..
The appeal is in the social nature of it: you build a profile, you can compare it to other games, you can share it with friends, you can see what your friends do. It brings meaning to what is otherwise an isolated (and in my opinion, even more pointless) experience.
If gaming is pointless then watching TV, reading, listening to music etc are just as pointless. You could extend that to gardening, cleaning and other activities that don't contribute to your survival.
Well, I didn't call gaming pointless. The other guy did. I was just saying to him that if he considers gaming with achievements pointless that I consider gaming without achievement more pointless.
Nothing is truly pointless, but some are more pointless than others. Watching TV has a social aspect to it if you watch it with friends or chat with others who also watch your shows (you also learn stuff, but arguably reading is the way to go). Gaming without achievements is akin to this: it can be a stress reliever (and also a stress causer). It can teach you things and keep your brain fresh (puzzle games), and so forth. Gaming with achievements is gaming without achievements but taken further, pumping up the social aspect of it. Gardening is useful because humans need to eat. Cleaning is useful to prevent diseases but also has less extreme social benefits.
It's weird how few games I have installed (none) but how others have like billions of them installed.
The only reason i got a WP is for the achievements
I have to keep deleting games because I run out of space each week. That's on 16 GB device, with no music anymore. A lot of them were free, and a lot of them are in my pile of shame (games I must finish). It's like Steam though - I have 240+ games and need to finish 150+ of them. Many of those are AAA titles that I bought on day 1 and have barely spent 5 hours on. So yeah... I pretty much collect games, and play them when I have time/motivation
I don't care much for achievements on mobile games, (i love aiming for them on x360 though) but iot does however give me that extra incentive to put money into buying a mobile game if it has xbox achievement support
It's not.a matter of achievements as far as i'm concerned. Microsoft lost a golden opportunity with Xbox Live gaming considering the millions of Xbox owners and gamers that they could have attracted to WP. Having the ability to buy a game on your phone. and play on your tablet as well would have been killer. I get the impression that MS envisioned this but couldn't deliver, or as usual can't yet but plan too? Also, let's not overlook the advantage of having your game save available to you when you reset your phone or tablet which is available on most Live games. Having to start over is a royal PITA.
Yeah, so far smartglass hasn't lived up to the initial announcements. If it was anything like they said then gamers would've come in droves. Seamless integration between phone, xbox and PC? Hell yeah! What do we have? A glorified xbox-controller app available on IOS and and Android too.
When we're old and on our deathbed we can look back and say "well, at least I have a high gamerscore and my achievements will be remembered forever" :P :P
Well it helps... puts another app in the store that a lot of people like on other platforms. its not free but its still here.
This Sucks!!!!!
I don't buy apps that fail to alter their icons. Those iOS curves make it a pass.
LOL! What?
I noticed that as well. The other app had a proper icon...
So let me get this straight I bought the app with Xbox achievements and now it doesn't have them but they want me to buy it again... No thank you!
No option to Free, just buy or share -_-
Share is free.
Play is buy.
Finally...
Free of Xbox Live Achievements.
sweet. now we could see updates more often.
Free to pay.
LOL
I see that too..
Don't get it.. Free and it's 0.99
Hauahuhuahaua
ROFL!
Free to sell, eh?
I had a laugh about that too! Either ways, For less than the price of a pack of gum, I now have one more game on my phone for my little 8 year old to play on road trips.
I also have another 99 cents burning a hole in my pocket for TempleRun2 developers but that is a discussion for another day!