Xbox Live: Battlewagon & Doodle God make it to the Marketplace, breaking & making things all the while

By Paul Acevedo
last updated

Joining the free game Breeze on Xbox Live this week are two paid titles, Battlewagon and Doodle God. Both games are now available on the Marketplace.

Battlewagon is a curious and very British game that takes place during medieval times. The object is to retake your lands from four evil barons. Battlewagon’s 68 levels encompass a variety of gameplay styles: firing a catapult from a stationary wagon, winding up the wagon just the right amount to stop it within a designated zone, jumping over or barreling through obstacles and enemies, and tossing bombs at specific parts of enemy castles.

While the gameplay is creative and the art charmingly retro, Battlewagon shows a few rough spots out of the gate. The slingshot mechanic could work better as you don’t have much room to aim without hitting the edge of the screen; it’s easy to fire accidentally too. The game seriously needs a retry option from the pause menu and after failing levels as well.

Doodle God is a popular indie game that has been upgraded to Xbox Live status. It’s a hard game to describe, but think of it as an alchemy simulator. You start out with only four elements to mix and match, each combination creating a new element. The object is simply to make them all, which requires tons of experimentation and thought. What makes glass in real life? Fire plus sand. Combine those ingredients in-game and you’ve just unlocked glass, which can then be mixed with many other elements.

Doodle God may look simple in screenshots, but it’s bolstered by terrific British voice acting and a sharp UI. The interface is actually optimized for Windows Phone (swiping left and right to switch pages, etcetera), something you don’t see in many iPhone ports. It also includes several minigames to unlock and a Windows Phone-exclusive quest.

Battlewagon costs $2.99 and you can get it here on the Marketplace. Doodle God is also $2.99. Pick it up here, chemistry enthusiasts.

Battlewagon

Doodle God

Paul Acevedo
Paul Acevedo

Paul Acevedo is the Games Editor at Windows Central. A lifelong gamer, he has written about videogames for over 15 years and reviewed over 350 games for our site. Follow him on Twitter @PaulRAcevedo. Don’t hate. Appreciate!

16 Comments
  • Seriously Microsoft, there's no way you can advert a multitasking OS, and still release games that do not take advantage of it 3 months after...
     
    Doodle God doesn't simple fast-app switching. And it's not like it was fast to load/resume...
    I just deleted it right away, and will only consider it when/if it supports fast app swithing...
     
    I think it's high time *every* Microsoft release supports fast-app...
  • Doubt this was "created" by Microsoft. Most likely just publishing it as it's an Xbox Live game.
  • umm i bought doodle god before, and then it went away.. now that its back do i have to rebuy it?
  • I know how you feel, I bought Doodle God before as well. This one is designed entirely from scratch for Windows Phone, well worth paying for again IMHO. I think it was removed from the Marketplace because they were working on this version.
  • Free achievements points are great!
  • @onysi: No you won't. Just click on "buy" and it'll tell you that you have already bought it. It'll just reinstall the game.
    @warpdesign: First of all there is no such thing as multitasking on WP7. Those apps are not running in the background. As for the fast app-switching: A Mango app will not be available for all users. There are still users who did not get the Mango update yet. So instead of providing the game to only those user who have Mango, what the studios can do is release a Nodo version of a game and then shortly after the Mango update. That way everyone can download the game and play, and Mango users will get the update.
    I think as long as there are users without Mango, it's okay to do it this way. If only Mango apps were to be released all the Non-Mango users would be really pi**ed for not getting any apps anymore.
  • Actually if you bought Doodle God before they removed it from the marketplace you have to pay for it again.
  • That's right!!!!
    It's a shame!! Why would we have to pay twice?!! Because Xbox is written on it now?? I love wp7 but that...drives me mad!!!!! Microsoft is laughing at us! Deep lack of consideration...
  • So don't delete the old game from your phone and you won't have a need to rebuy it. Of course, that won't help if you have to replace your phone or whatever. It's a flawed system, but it's only a few bucks, not a $60 game you'd be losing.
  • lol...i have flashed my phone so many times...always reload apps...so i was really happy to see that doodle god came back.
    i won't waste a single cent in this swindle!!! it's probably not right/fair but i will sideload a hacked version! 
    (when WV bought AUDI they didn't ask AUDI owners to pay another time, that would be ridiculous)
    Edit : i don't encourage hacking process! i've bought dozens of xbla games and will go on that way! but when things turn obscure i use obscure methods...
  • Dear reviewer, 
    I have a few questions. What makes this game very British? Is it filled with mince pies and Union jacks? No it is not. I could easily be perceived as any European nation from a medieval era.
    I am a bit confused about the catapult comment for Battlewagon. The same issues can be said about Angry Birds which in my opinion is more prone to random angled shots. 
    Whatever happened to having a challenge in a game? Everyone wants a retry to make life easier. Games such as Doom and Prince of persia gave you one life and were great back in the day. 
    Personally I am very impressed with Battlewagon, it is worth the money. For a phone game its very pretty, I love the upgrades, the replay value and the challenge on the later levels. 2 Thumbs up
     
  • Hiya Melted. I'm not actually reviewing these two games in this post. Actual reviews should be much longer and describe the games in more detail. This is just an announcement that the games are available along with my first impressions. The British comment on Battlewagon comes from 3 things: the language uses a lot of British words (anticlockwise, skittles) and spellings; the art is highly remeniscent of classic British Amiga games; and the game was made in Britain. But mainly I'm not used to actually playing a game with such British language - it would usually be Americanized in the translation process. It's part of the game's charm. I think a Retry option is pretty important in most modern games, and returning to antiquated design philosophies because the original Prince of Persia was cool is not a good idea. I do know that the lack of such an option is by design in this case though. I'll go into more detail about it in my eventual review. Glad you're liking the game!
  • > First of all there is no such thing as multitasking on WP7. Those apps are not running in the background.
    Yeah, I know that. But to the basic user with no programming knowledge this is what it means...
    I can understand not all users have upgraded yet, but as a user I can't consider a game that takes dozens of seconds to load when I can be interrupted at any time by a phone call, an SMS I needed to read, etc... It just doesn't work.
    Isn't it possible to release two versions ? One pre-mango, and one for mango ? Sure it could mean maintaining both, but we can hope in the near feature most users will have switched so that the pre-mango one doesn't need to be updated. I guess it's not possible to release a version that would be compatible with both but take advantage of Mango features (like fast app switching) ?
  • I was hoping for a surprise Sonic CD today since the other platforms got it :(
     
    Maybe next week!  :)
  • I will be a very sad panda if Sonic CD doesn't come out next week!
  • just got an update for battlewagon. any idea what it's about???