Doodle Hex

Drawing games have never been high on the priority list of all but the most junior or unhinged gamers. But this little fella looks as though it holds some promise. You’ll play as one of a gaggle of Doodlers - students at a school of rune casting - and in your spare moments you trawl the corridors looking for fellow trainees to have runic battles with.

Now you might fear that this is going to be some turn-based magic act like all those other wizardy things. But oh no, it’s far more hectic than that. To cast the spells you have to draw them on the screen with your stylus - but be warned… as you scrawl away, your opponent’s doing just the same, so you’ll have to devise strategies to block them off as you cast your spells and curses, and run them ragged before they get you.

With over 200 runes to learn (and swap with pals over wi-fi) there’s a whole world of combos to carefully craft that’ll have your opponent stinging from a ball of fire, or ribbiting like an old frog. But you don’t have to remember them all - they’ll be handily stacked up in a bar that surrounds the scribbling arena. It’s manic stuff, and perfectly suited to the wand-fueled handheld. And word has it that a Wii version isn’t too far over the horizon - which sounds like a magic idea to us.

May 13, 2008