Mr. Driller
Dig, Dig, and Dig!
Developer: Namco
Platforms: Arcade, Playstation, Dreamcast, Windows, Game Boy Color, Wonderswan Color
First Release Date: November 1999 (Arcade, JP)
Mr. Driller! I love this game. It isn't a very traditional puzzle game, instead it’s about surviving and digging down a well of puzzle game falling blocks. They’re affected by gravity, so the main threat is getting squished by blocks above you. You’re also constantly running out of air, so you can't always plan out every little move- you have to keep going and react on the fly to which blocks are dropping. Different colors of blocks will connect with each other and are all cleared together when you drill through them. You have to try to watch for blocks that will stick together and make a solid foundation above you. It's such a unique game and it’s also a little terrifying.
As the intro tells you, the town is overrun with blocks! Young driller Susumu dives in to see where the blocks are coming from. Later games in the series would connect to the Dig-Dug games, but that isn't a part of the story yet. I'll have to talk about Dig-Dug divorce another day. Susumu drills down and finds little blue Undergrounders along the way, until he finally reaches a throne room. He speaks to the king of the Undergrounders, and learns that the blocks are their favorite food, which was being mass-produced. They didn't realize the impacts of that on the surface world... Susumu loses his temper and tells the king to stop and be more careful! The king agrees, and Susumu gets lifted out of the pit by a helicopter. All is well again, for now. Adorable.
This game does not pull its punches, and you dig deeper your reaction time will get tested more and more. You can sidle up blocks, and there will be a lot of close calls where you pull yourself up just in the nick of time. The brown "X" blocks will make you lose air if you break them, so you have to be careful to not get trapped in them. Making sure you pay attention to what's above you, moving forward and collecting air, not accidentally trapping yourself in the X blocks; doing this all at once is demanding and satisfying to get better at. After a while, all of the air capsules will be surrounded by X blocks, forcing you to make quick matches to clear them. By the end, the odds are so heavily stacked against you- your air drains as fast as you can refill it. You can drill a block above you to stall falling blocks just barely, but by the end every split second counts. If you make it all the way to the end, pat yourself on the back! And give yourself a round of applause if you get the coveted Master/Mister Driller title, achieved by either never dying or collecting all air capsules. I haven't been able to verify that myself though...
Go Shiina gives this game an eclectic, one-of-a-kind soundtrack. I'm very fond of some of the incredibly tense themes you can hear once the game really gets tough. Special shout out to Sagittarius from the console versions. Fair warning though, those versions have some very loud audio mixing, especially the title screen and game over music. Just be ready for them! The console ports also include an endless mode, as well as a neat time attack mode. Endless is exactly what you'd expect, and the time attack levels are short premade levels with timers to collect instead of air. The goal times can be tough to reach, and there's an even harder set of levels after the first. I want to mention the impressive Game Boy Color port as well- the music struggles to play over the sound effects, but it feels just as good to play as the other versions.
Connie’s Conversations: I'd like to point to this interview from 2000, translated on "It's Fantastic!". There's a lot of insight here into the game's development in a difficult time for arcade titles, its origins as a Dig-Dug game, Susumu's mysterious variable height, and more. I love that the flavor of the blocks was asked, and that they had answers for each type ready. It’s also confirmed that no, Susumu can’t eat them. Isn’t that sad?
The following games in the series would add a lot to the Mr. Driller world, and I like them all quite a bit, but I think the first game is probably still my favorite. They really nailed this idea right off the bat, and I find myself revisiting this game for a quick attempt every other month or so. It's a perfect, claustrophobic, adorable little experience. As much as I'd like to close this page by linking a lovely live performance of the Mr. Driller main theme, “Susume! Driller”, it actually debuted a couple games later... Maybe I can link it anyway. No one will stop me.
Thank you for reading!
