Vital Stats

Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1-5
Online: None

Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
ESRB Rating: E
Release Date: 11/30/04

Platforms

• DS

Mr. Driller DS is the archetypal GBA game pretending to be something more than it is. While it doesn’t much take advantage of the platform’s features, this doesn’t diminish the addictive action-puzzle gameplay.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth
In a rare stroke for a video game, it’s possible to infer most of the game’s action from its title. Mr. Driller DS is a puzzle game where the character is expected to (get this) drill as deeply as possible into a multicolor grid of destructible blocks. Drilling is complicated by the fact that drilling a block will destroy all contiguous blocks of the same color, and blocks of the same color that fall past one another will stick together. In small enough groups, this stickiness can be used to shore up falling blocks, but large enough groups collapse, precipitating massive chain-cave-ins as the level settles with all the grace of the San Francisco earthquake.

Now, with enough time to ponder a group of blocks, it’d be possible to work out the details of any collapse, no matter how complex. To prevent this sort of overly analytical gameplay, characters have a rapidly decreasing supply of air that can only be replenished by occasional pickups. The designers don’t exactly make the capsules easy to get, either, frequently surrounding them with a special kind of block that depletes your air stock as you drill through it.

It sounds complicated, but it’s not. For the most part, gameplay boils down to, “press A to drill.” All this comes together to create a fast-paced game that’s as much action as puzzle. It’s almost the opposite of Tetris-style games; instead of adding new pieces to build and modify a complex environment, you remove pieces from a complex environment to navigate through it. The gameplay seems confusing and chaotic at first, but given enough time, the game proves surprisingly deep.

Slag
Though the core gameplay is fun and competently designed, the candy coating is cloying at best. Character designs come from the “insulin shock” school of super-deformed artwork and most of the game is painted in pastels. It doesn’t harm the tile-based gameplay in the slightest, but some people may be embarrassed to be seen in public with it.

The music is the typical forgettable puzzle fare, but the game has also wasted some its cartridge space on squeaky voice work. The narrative segments are nearly incoherent, but worse is the in game auditory feedback. The worst offender is the main character’s low-air alarm, which sounds downright pornographic. Just keep the volume down in public.

Drill Spirits . . . DS . . . I get it!
There’s only a very few features in Mr. Driller DS that actually require the DS platform instead of the GBA. Among these is a wireless multiplayer mode where players race to the bottom instead of drilling for mere survival. Unfortunately, despite the relatively simple nature of the game, it does not support download play and every interested player needs a cartridge. This significantly impairs the DS’s functionality as a social gaming device. It’s hard enough to persuade your friends to play a game populated by characters that look and sound like Speed Racer rejects, but expecting them to pay for the privilege is a fantasy.

Beyond some touch-sensitive menus, the only other reason to justify this game’s presence on the DS instead of the GBA is the extra screen offers some additional screen real estate that allows the player to see the larger pattern of cave-ins as they happen. Honestly, the game would have worked just as well and cheaper on the GBA.

The Earth’s Core Isn’t Exactly Acessible
One of the major drawbacks to Mr. Driller DS is that it isn’t quite as accessible as it should be. Most play sessions aren’t more than five minutes long and the game has a measured difficulty curve, but that’s the end of the good news. Instead of having a readily available, “pick up and drill” mode, the game consists of six mission modes, several levels where you’re expected to drill and battle a giant robot, and a handful of preset puzzle maps to spice things up. In fact, the only way to enter a mode where you can just sit down and play until you run out of luck and air is to complete all six mission modes, and then free drilling stage is set to maximum speed and difficulty.

This raises another issue with Mr. Driller DS, the lack of transparently selectable difficulty. Whereas a traditional puzzle game like Dr. Mario will allow you to independently vary the game’s speed and difficulty, no such option is available to Mr. Driller. Sequential mission modes become faster and harder, but they end after a predetermined depth and are a poor substitute for being able to set the game to a fun difficulty level. There are several unlockable characters with special abilities and some optional items that can ease the difficulty of later levels somewhat, but they actually change the game’s dynamic rather than directly adjusting the difficulty.

In Sum
Mr. Driller suffers from some accessibility issues that harm its value to the ostensible target audience of casual gamers. However, the game’s depth and compelling pace at higher difficulty levels help outweigh the terrible aesthetic and miserable voice work. The game will be most desirable for puzzle junkies who haven’t played any of the other Mr. Driller games, though casual and hardcore gamers may find it a pleasant diversion.

What It Costs: $5

What It’s Worth:

• To The Hardcore: $10 (play)
• To The Genre Fan: $20 (buy)
• To The Casual: $15 (play)