XBLA Today: Mr. Driller Online

First of all, let me introduce what this is. A new planned weekly feature, XBLA Today is going to be a quick impression from us on the new XBLA game every week. If there are two games, we’ll do two, and no this is not a review, just a mini one. It’ll be just a little bit of an idea on what actually went up this morning on XBLA, besides just a name, a few screenshots, and a press release.

This weeks new release is Mr. Driller Online, a puzzle game that has had numerous releases in different forms, on various platforms. The gameplay has been described as a Dig Dug meets Tetris game, mixed in with very “cute” looks to say the least. In fact, the main character Susumu Hori (the only character available in the demo) is the son of the main character of Dig Dug, Taizo Hori. The game was originally named Dig Dug 3 as well, but was later changed to be a new series.

Hit the break for our impressions, and a gameplay description.

In the game, you drill through blocks, and the goal is to get to the bottom. The distance you have to go is given in meters, and at every 100, the blocks you didn’t drill through above you disappear. During this, you have an air supply that slowly disintegrates, and can be refilled with air capsules. You will lose a life if the air runs out, or, through your drilling, you cause a block to fall on your head. If similar colored blocks are together, when you drill one, all disappear, and if 4 or more fall into each other, they will disappear without being drilled.

There are, besides the 4 different colored normal blocks, a few other special types of blocks. They are: white blocks that don’t merge with other blocks, crystal blocks that only last for a few seconds before disappearing, and these brown ‘X’ blocks that take 3 hits to drill through, and hurt you by taking out 20% of your air supply.

The game can be a bit frantic, considering the air supply is almost a timer, as you are trying to get all the way down fast, without causing yourself to get crushed by blocks you caused to fall, and keeping your air full the whole time. The multiplayer element I think will help it out, I have not yet been able to try it, but I usually really enjoy multiplayer in puzzle games. Overall, it is not a particularly complicated game, just simple, addictive, and slightly hectic puzzle fun. Be sure to check out the demo and let us know what you think about this feature.