Mr. Driller (Puzzle) (ARCADE)

1999 · puzzle · Arcade · The Data Archivist V0.01

PLAY ONLINE : https://archive.org/details/arcade_mrdrillr VIDEO GAMEPLAY : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KI5noWHDLk Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Driller_(video_game) Mr. Driller [ a ] is a 1999 puzzle video game developed and published by Namco for arcades . It was later ported to various home and portable systems. Controlling Susumu Hori, the titular "Mr. Driller", the player must dig their way to the bottom of the screen by destroying colored blocks that litter the playfield. Blocks will be cleared if four or more are touching each other, which can be used to cause chain reactions. Susumu has a constantly-depleting oxygen meter that can be refilled by collecting air capsules found throughout stages. Mr. Driller was designed by Yasuhito Nagaoka and produced by Hideo Yoshizawa , best known for his work on Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and the Ninja Gaiden series. It was intended as the third entry in Namco's Dig Dug series, tentatively titled Dig Dug 3 . Originally meant to be exclusive to home consoles, it was instead made an arcade game to help increase sales. The game was completed before it was ever pitched, leading to a lengthy process that ended with the game being presented to company president Masaya Nakamura . Upon release, Mr. Driller was met with mostly positive reviews from critics — reviewers praised its "refreshing" gameplay premise, colorful visuals and soundtrack, although criticized its low replay value and lack of extra content. It was met with a long series of sequels and spin-offs for multiple platforms, beginning with Mr. Driller 2 in 2000. The PlayStation version of the game was released for the PlayStation Store under the PSOne Classics series in 2014, before being delisted in 2019. It was also included as one of the 20 games in the PlayStation Classic mini console, and was released digitally on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2022. Gameplay Arcade version screenshot Mr. Driller is a puzzle video game, commonly described as a mix between Dig Dug and Columns . [ 3 ] The player controls Susumu Hori, the titular "Mr. Driller", who must destroy all of the piling-up blocks before they take over the city of Downtown. [ 4 ] The objective is to make it to the bottom of the stage by destroying, or "drilling", colored blocks that litter the playfield. [ 4 ] Susumu can move left and right to drill surrounding blocks, and can also jump up a block next to him by moving against it. [ 4 ] Blocks can also be cleared if four or more touch each other, which can be used to cause chain reactions. [ 4 ] Blocks will also fall if there is nothing underneath to support them, which can crush Susumu and lose a life if he is under them. [ 4 ] Susumu has an oxygen meter at the right-hand side of the screen, which constantly depletes as the game progresses — Susumu can replenish part of his oxygen meter by collecting air capsules found throughout the game. [ 4 ] Susumu will lose a portion of his oxygen if he drills brown "X-Blocks", which take five hits to destroy, and will lose a life if his meter reaches 0%. [ 4 ] A skull-and-crossbones symbol will appear over Susumu's head if his oxygen dips under 30% as a warning sign. [ 4 ] The home console versions of the game add two new game modes, a "Time Attack" mode where Susumu must constantly collect clocks to reduce his elapsed time, and a "Survival Mode" where the player must drill as much as they can before dying. [ 5 ] Development Concept art of the player character Mr. Driller was designed by Yasuhito Nagaoka and produced by Hideo Yoshizawa , the latter being known for his work on the Ninja Gaiden series for Tecmo . [ 6 ] Nagaoka based the concept of Mr. Driller on a Japanese children's game, where at a beach players had to stand a piece of wood in the middle of the sand and carve away the sand without knocking down the wood. [ 7 ] The idea of a person being in the sand pile instead of the wood intrigued Nagaoka, who believed it made for an interesting game idea. [ 7 ] He also based Mr. Driller on Dig Dug , a classic Namco arcade game from 1982. The prototype was named Dig Dug 3 and starred Dig Jr., a tall and lanky character intended as the son of Dig Dug protagonist Taizo Hori. Nagaoka was designing Dig Dug 3 as a title for home consoles, as arcades at the time were dominated by fighting games . [ 6 ] When Nagaoka showed the prototype game to Yoshizawa, he became immediately interested and joined the project as its producer. Yoshizawa convinced Nagaoka to make Dig Dug 3 an arcade game, believing it would become lost in a crowded home console market. [ 6 ] Several changes were made when Yoshizawa joined the project, which included a faster pace, a new player character, and the game being renamed to Mr. Driller . [ 7 ] [ 6 ] The characters and graphical style were designed by Namco artist Kaori Shinozaki, who had previously assisted in production of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and LiberoGrande . [ 8 ] Shinozaki wanted the characters and look of M