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The DS moved approximately eleven bajillion units across the world. (My numbers may be
a bit outdated, but it’s still a hands-down successful piece of hardware.) Everyone wanted
a piece of the action, and even some well-established franchises were eager to bifurcate their own
action to accommodate the split-screen juggernaut. The most valiant of these went so far as to
subtitle themselves with the initials of their host: Dual Strike, Dawn of Sorrow, Dust Strikers.
To this list we add Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits, the continuing adventure of Hori Susumu and
his drill-addict pals. (Including a drilling robot, just to prove that in Japan, you can
stick “-inger-Z” after anything and BAM. It’s a robot.) In much the same vein as
his arcade and Playstation outings, he’s here to dig through colorful blocks and huff
air canisters, and he’s all out of air canisters. Which is probably a bad thing.
God gave him a gift. He drills well. And he’s here to put that to use by digging holes all
around the world, for... um. Reasons. Admittedly, the mission mode is more for the purpose of
unlocking the cast of characters, and the time trial mode doesn’t add to the story
at all, and the Pressure Driller mode... well, just don’t get squashed by that huge thing,
‘kay? Just shoot fireballs at it instead. There’s an evil guy inside it... or something.
Okay, so there’s not much of a plot at all, but that’s fine, because this is about DIGGING
and SCORES and TIMES and MULTIPLAYER. It’s about not screwing up a system that was really
freakin’ awesome the first time around. It’s about taking a really fun, pseudo-action
pseudo-puzzle system and enhancing it with an item shop full of power-ups, or broadcasting
it via DS Download Play to friends and letting them join you in a hole. And to that extent,
it works perfectly.
I will, however, air a small gripe about the North American version of the game: No Dristone
mode. This variant tasks you with maximizing distance while minimizing blocks drilled,
a more cerebral take on the sometimes-frantic DIG DIG DIG DUG (wait, wrong game... kinda)
pace of the original. You don’t lose air by taking time, you only lose it by breaking
blocks. If you’re playing any other version of the game, Japanese, European, or Australian,
you can rest easy knowing you’ve got one over on us. But for what’s already here
- especially download-play multiplayer, which just makes any DS game better - it’s tough
to argue with the execution. They had one job to do, and they did it well. And they
added Hori Taizo - you might know him better as Dig Dug - as a playable character, thus
paying off my joke earlier in this paragraph. You’re welcome.