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Mr. Driller
Mr. Driller is a puzzle video game franchise created by Yasuhito Nagaoka and Hideo Yoshizawa for Namco. The eponymous first game was released in 1999 for arcades and several home consoles, such as the PlayStation. Gameplay in the series consists of controlling Susumu Hori, the titular Mr. Driller, or one of his friends and destroying colorful formations of blocks to make it to the bottom of a well. In order to survive, players need to collect air capsules to replenish their depleting oxygen and avoid being crushed by falling blocks.
Nagaoka intended Mr. Driller to be the third mainline entry in Namco's Dig Dug series. The two franchises have since been directly connected to one another through sharing characters and similar gameplay concepts. Project Driller was established as the development team for the series, which produced four sequels from 2000 to 2004. Bandai Namco Entertainment became the owner of the Mr. Driller property after Namco's 2005 merger with Bandai, where it released several more installments for digital distribution services and mobile devices.
The Mr. Driller series was popular in Japan and its characters have become synonymous with the Namco brand. Reception from western publications has varied depending on the game. Most critics agree the series benefits from its simplicity and addictive nature, though several installments have been criticized for their lack of content and recycling of assets from earlier games.
The Mr. Driller games are puzzle action games and have been described as a cross between Puyo Puyo and Dig Dug. Players control a character that must destroy, or "drill", colorful formations of blocks in order to reach the bottom of a well. Blocks of the same color can connect to each other; if four of a kind connect, they are destroyed, which can be used to create chain reactions. The player has a constantly depleting oxygen meter that can be replenished by collecting blue air capsules. Oxygen is lost by destroying brown "x"-marked blocks, which take five hits to destroy. Certain characters have their own attributes and abilities, such as depleting oxygen less and moving faster. Later games introduce mechanics such as star-marked blocks that disappear after a brief period, boss fights, power-ups, and game modes that implement ideas from role-playing games.
The original Mr. Driller was created by R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 director Yasuhito Nagaoka and former Tecmo employee Hideo Yoshizawa. Nagaoka drafted the game in 1998 as a second sequel to Dig Dug, a classic Namco arcade game from 1982, aptly named Dig Dug 3. The game was designed to be more puzzle-like in gameplay structure, a contrast to the action-oriented gameplay of Dig Dug and Dig Dug II. Yoshizawa made several alterations to Nagaoka's prototype build, including the renaming to Mr. Driller. Namco released the game in arcades in 1999 to critical and commercial success. Mr. Driller was ported to several platforms, including the Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color.
Yoshizawa and Nagaoka quickly began work on a sequel, Mr. Driller 2, in late 1999. The two worked to implement new features, such as a second-player character and making the gameplay faster and more chaotic than the original. The sequel was released for arcades in 2000 to moderate success and was followed by a port for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. The Game Boy Advance version was a launch title for the system and sold over 100,000 copies, but the game wasn't released in North America and Europe until 2005.
The third entry, Mr. Driller G, was released in 2001 for arcades and later the PlayStation. The game was created to be more story-driven than the previous installments, which expanded on the Mr. Driller universe and helped bridge the connection between the Mr. Driller and Dig Dug franchises. Taizo Hori, the protagonist of the Dig Dug series, is a playable character in G and is revealed to be the father of Susumu and his older brother Ataru Hori. The PlayStation version was only moderately successful with around 10,000 being sold during launch week.
Yoshizawa intended G to be the final game in the series, but Namco was approached by Nintendo to create a Mr. Driller game for the GameCube that took advantage of the console's GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable peripheral. This resulted in the creation of Mr. Driller A for the Game Boy Advance and Mr. Driller Drill Land for the GameCube in 2002. A implemented a Tamagotchi-inspired virtual pet that could be transferred to Drill Land. Though Drill Land received the most acclaim out of any game in the series, its exclusivity to the GameCube made it a commercial failure. Namco became less interested in supporting the franchise as a result. Mr. Driller Drill Spirits, the second portable entry in the series, was released in 2004 for the Nintendo DS and reused many of Drill Land's game modes and assets, though condensed to meet the system's hardware limitations. Namco's North American division stripped most of its content in order for it to be ready in time for the launch of the DS in the United States, a move that garnered significant criticism from publications.
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Mr. Driller
Mr. Driller is a puzzle video game franchise created by Yasuhito Nagaoka and Hideo Yoshizawa for Namco. The eponymous first game was released in 1999 for arcades and several home consoles, such as the PlayStation. Gameplay in the series consists of controlling Susumu Hori, the titular Mr. Driller, or one of his friends and destroying colorful formations of blocks to make it to the bottom of a well. In order to survive, players need to collect air capsules to replenish their depleting oxygen and avoid being crushed by falling blocks.
Nagaoka intended Mr. Driller to be the third mainline entry in Namco's Dig Dug series. The two franchises have since been directly connected to one another through sharing characters and similar gameplay concepts. Project Driller was established as the development team for the series, which produced four sequels from 2000 to 2004. Bandai Namco Entertainment became the owner of the Mr. Driller property after Namco's 2005 merger with Bandai, where it released several more installments for digital distribution services and mobile devices.
The Mr. Driller series was popular in Japan and its characters have become synonymous with the Namco brand. Reception from western publications has varied depending on the game. Most critics agree the series benefits from its simplicity and addictive nature, though several installments have been criticized for their lack of content and recycling of assets from earlier games.
The Mr. Driller games are puzzle action games and have been described as a cross between Puyo Puyo and Dig Dug. Players control a character that must destroy, or "drill", colorful formations of blocks in order to reach the bottom of a well. Blocks of the same color can connect to each other; if four of a kind connect, they are destroyed, which can be used to create chain reactions. The player has a constantly depleting oxygen meter that can be replenished by collecting blue air capsules. Oxygen is lost by destroying brown "x"-marked blocks, which take five hits to destroy. Certain characters have their own attributes and abilities, such as depleting oxygen less and moving faster. Later games introduce mechanics such as star-marked blocks that disappear after a brief period, boss fights, power-ups, and game modes that implement ideas from role-playing games.
The original Mr. Driller was created by R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 director Yasuhito Nagaoka and former Tecmo employee Hideo Yoshizawa. Nagaoka drafted the game in 1998 as a second sequel to Dig Dug, a classic Namco arcade game from 1982, aptly named Dig Dug 3. The game was designed to be more puzzle-like in gameplay structure, a contrast to the action-oriented gameplay of Dig Dug and Dig Dug II. Yoshizawa made several alterations to Nagaoka's prototype build, including the renaming to Mr. Driller. Namco released the game in arcades in 1999 to critical and commercial success. Mr. Driller was ported to several platforms, including the Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color.
Yoshizawa and Nagaoka quickly began work on a sequel, Mr. Driller 2, in late 1999. The two worked to implement new features, such as a second-player character and making the gameplay faster and more chaotic than the original. The sequel was released for arcades in 2000 to moderate success and was followed by a port for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. The Game Boy Advance version was a launch title for the system and sold over 100,000 copies, but the game wasn't released in North America and Europe until 2005.
The third entry, Mr. Driller G, was released in 2001 for arcades and later the PlayStation. The game was created to be more story-driven than the previous installments, which expanded on the Mr. Driller universe and helped bridge the connection between the Mr. Driller and Dig Dug franchises. Taizo Hori, the protagonist of the Dig Dug series, is a playable character in G and is revealed to be the father of Susumu and his older brother Ataru Hori. The PlayStation version was only moderately successful with around 10,000 being sold during launch week.
Yoshizawa intended G to be the final game in the series, but Namco was approached by Nintendo to create a Mr. Driller game for the GameCube that took advantage of the console's GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable peripheral. This resulted in the creation of Mr. Driller A for the Game Boy Advance and Mr. Driller Drill Land for the GameCube in 2002. A implemented a Tamagotchi-inspired virtual pet that could be transferred to Drill Land. Though Drill Land received the most acclaim out of any game in the series, its exclusivity to the GameCube made it a commercial failure. Namco became less interested in supporting the franchise as a result. Mr. Driller Drill Spirits, the second portable entry in the series, was released in 2004 for the Nintendo DS and reused many of Drill Land's game modes and assets, though condensed to meet the system's hardware limitations. Namco's North American division stripped most of its content in order for it to be ready in time for the launch of the DS in the United States, a move that garnered significant criticism from publications.