Dig Dug Deeper

"Lacks depth"

Though it may appear that I have been born after the rise and gradual decline of the arcade scene, I still greatly appreciate and enjoy the games put out in the 80s by such companies as Midway, Namco, Nintendo, and the like. These games are known and still respected because of traditional gameplay concepts which were groundbreaking at their time, effective graphics, and pure addictive nature. Many a player would pump quarter after quarter into such gems as Ms. Pac-Man, Gauntlet, and so on, and even though the trend of arcades is slowly declining, the games can still be enjoyed in several gaming venues, and also in newer game compilations released on the newer console platforms.

In regards to trends, Namco, Atari (well, Hasbro, I believe) and Konami have enthusiastically filled the market with compilations and updates to their classic, beloved franchises. Frogger and Pac-Man in particular have received the update treatment, with classic gameplay fused with modern mechanics. Pac-Man can not only chomp dots, but he can roll, butt stomp, and double jump. Frogger hops across vast, 3-D environments with the greatest of ease, and sometimes does not even see oncoming traffic.

It seems these updates have been received with success varying from lackluster to moderate, so companies who have been in the business for a while are not shy in cashing in on nostalgia. Dig Dug Deeper was released along with two other similar franchise updates in 2001. I picked up the game for five dollars at a local trading center, and unfortunately, there is not much to the experience.

The original Dig Dug, released in 1982, was a pure joy. Players were charged with the task of drilling underground and blowing up fiendish enemies with an air pump. Players could dig in all four directions, but could only change direction by digging; that is to say, players could not change direction while stationary. A delightful tune played as players would dig stage after stage, blowing up the unfortunate goggled critters and fire-breathing dragons. Sometimes, instead of blowing a creature up, a rock could be dropped on an enemy's head, squashing it.

While the game did spawn a sequel, the original is what players remember, and its concept is still enjoyed today. While the effort to bring the game to the 21st century in style is commendable, the overall product is unsatisfying.

The overall presentation is, unfortunately, rather bare-bones. Dig Dug Deeper's package is certainly suited for budget software, with the disc held simply in a sleeve. While the installation process is easy and understandable enough, the game's menus are unfortunately plain.

Dig Dug Deeper plays similarly to its source material, with a few major differences. The most easily-observable difference is not only the map screen, but that each stage has an overworld. A world is divided into either one, two, or three stages, and each of these stages consist of up to nine mound. Each mound is, essentially, a patch of ground where Dig-Dug moves and does his traditional work.

Each overworld consists of two to nine separate mounds. All but one are closed up at the start, and players can determine which one is usable when an enemy pops out of it. An enemy creature will come out of a hole then fall back in, but Dig Dug has a chance to explode the enemy before it re-enters the mound.

Once Dig-Dug is in the mound, players can easily familiarize themselves with what they have seen in a Dig Dug game before. However, Dig Dug can not use the surface of the ground to escape or blow up enemies: once Dig Dug is underground, he is underground until all enemies are gone. Additionally, a mound can scroll in all four directions, which leaves more space for Dig Dug and the enemies to roam.

The objective of each of these mounds and the way to accomplish the objective is essentially the same as players will remember. A mound is complete when all enemies are somehow off the screen. Players will drill in all four directions in a grid-like fashion to reach and blow up each enemy. The original two, Pooka and Fygar, are here of course, but there is one other kind of Pooka and a few other dragons to take care of.

A different type of Pooka will require several more pumps than four in order to be blown up. A blue dragon may be faster or more powerful, while a red dragon can shoot its fire about seven times the length of the original green Fyger. The fire can actually move up and down tunnels, chasing the hapless digger. Just like before, the enemies can move faster than Dig Dug while they are in the tunnels, so our digger should always be alert.

Enemies can send themselves translucently in between tunnels, and move in front of any already-created path. While in this sort of ghost form, Dig Dug can only hurt them when they come close enough to an actual tunnel. This generally works the same as in the original, but the ghosts are no different for the new types of Pookas or Fygars. This means that while a Fygar ghost is gradually heading toward either Dig Dug or the stage's exit, a player can not determine which type of Fygar the ghost is. The Fygar ghost could be green, blue, or red. This is usually not a problem, but some players may become frustrated.

If an enemy is crafty enough to escape to the top of the screen, it simply wanders around the overworld aimlessly, waiting to be killed, as opposed to the stage simply ending, as in the original.

New power-ups are available to aid Dig Dug in his underground adventures. These are usually earned by crushing enemies with rocks or using some sort of other trap to kill them besides pumping them up. These range from free lives, to speed boosts, and the like. One power-up, so to speak, actually got me killed. There is a new ability which allows Dig Dug to move his pump up and down through tunnels and extend the pump's reach to six or seven times its original size. Dig Dug can not move while the pump is being moved, which means that any enemy can sneak-attack the poor guy while he is trying to get an elusive enemy.

In addition to the power-ups, new types of environmental traps can help or hurt our digger. Oxygen trails are activated when the digger touches them, and these allow vapor trails to seep in any direction and junction of the already-made tunnels. This is as lethal to the enemies as it is to Dig Dug, so these must be used with caution. Also, lava flow can be activated which works the same as the oxygen trails, but fills up any ground it touches once an enemy comes in contact. Walking into these lava flow activators kill Dig Dug, so even activating them can be tricky. Small explosives also line the levels, which have quite a large blast radius.

These new upgrades and abilities do fit in to the original concept, and do not feel like cheating. The difficulty is neither raised nor lowered entirely by them; learning how and when to use them can even add a little strategy to the entire experience.

Regardless, players will find themselves adhering to the same strategies they employed back in the day. The risk versus reward of finding the exact moment to take out a batch of enemies still adds excitement to the experience. Sneak-attacking an enemy from behind is still as satisfying, and squashing an unsuspecting Pooka with a giant boulder is still as rewarding.

Dig Dug Deeper could easily be done as an early-generation Playstation title. Graphics do not make the game, but in this case, this can interfere with the gameplay. The game's environments are entirely stagnant and uninteresting. There are various places to go, such as the city, the volcano, the desert, and even the moon, but there is nothing entirely memorable from each of these diverse backdrops. Each stage offers the same trials, with very little variation in stage design. While the overworlds serve mainly as hubs to the different parts of each section, developers could have put a little more to look at.

Polygon models feature very few shapes. Characters look overly uninteresting, and no particle effects for fire or even expansion are present. When exploding a Pooka, there is no smooth transition of growth - the character does not become gradually larger - essentially, the Pooka features four frames, showing increasing size, and then the character no longer exists, with a point value in its place.

I loved the tune of the original Dig Dug. When Dig Dug was standing still, one could only hear the movements of the enemies, rhythmic bleeps and bloops. If Dig Dug began to move, a tune would play that sounded energetic and light, easily accompanying the music. If an enemy were on the way out with Dig Dug frantically pursuing it, the music would play faster. This was all that was required or even expected, and it worked fine.

A few smooth jazz riffs play in this newer iteration, with no inflection or slight difference when anything happens. This lightens the mood, and ignoring the faithfulness to the original, it works well. There are even "updated" versions of the death and game over diddies, which fit well into the nostalgic design. However, the music came become somewhat grating, and some instrumentals are questionable. In a few stages, in between the drum and guitar licks, there is an indiscernible sound in the music which might as well have been a cat. It proved somewhat distracting, unfortunately.

Players will be done with Dig Dug Deeper soon after the game is taken out of the package. There are less than twenty stages to dig and pump through, and after this, there are a few different difficulties and options to tinker with, but this will soon be pushed aside. If players are looking for Dig Dug-related nostalgia, I could nonetheless recommend the various compilations which feature either this, its sequel, or its "Arrangement" version. There is a lot to praise in this game, and though its length and graphical nuances may be somewhat lacking, there lies a good piece of nostalgia within.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/05