Mr. Driller Drill Spirits

"An insanely addictive game for the DS"

Hello, I am Yuma Kai and this is my review for "Mr. Driller Drill Spirits" for the DS (note that Drill Spirits = DS, very clever Namco). After Christmas, I had money burning a hole in my pocket and only one DS game, so the answer was clear: get a new DS game. The only problem was that there seemed to be a lack of good games for the DS as far as I could recall, so I searched around a bit. Two games that really caught my interest were Feel the Magic and Mr. Driller DS. I called a few places nere where I live, but I couldn't find FTM anywhere, and only one place with Mr. Driller. I was kind of unsure about Mr. Driller, as I don't care for puzzle games, but something about it caught my attention somehow, so I got it. I get home, split open the case and started playing the most addictive game ever (to this day, I still think that Namco has developed technology that shoots addictive light at you while you play Mr. Driller)

Gameplay: 10/10

The real meat of a game, this is important. As I have said before, Mr. Driller is crazy addictive. I'll cover each of the three game modes here.
Mission Mode: You start playing, and then you drill down through colored blocks, trying to get to a set depth without losing all of your lives. Blocks from above you will fall and if you are underneath one when it hits, you will lose a life. Whenever you drill a block of a certain color and it has an adjacent block of the same color, that one will be destroyed too. To add a twist to this, you have oxygen. You lose oxygen during gameplay, whether or not you are drilling or just standing around. If you run out of oxygen, which depletes fairly rapidly, you will lose a life. But fear not! To prevent this from happening, oxygen capsules have been placed at different points around a level, and these will restore your oxygen meter slightly. Mission Mode is actually very hard, but the saving grace is that there's an item shop where you can exchange saved up points for items that assist you in your drilling efforts. At the end of a course, you will watch a brief cutscene and then unlock a character with different abilities. For example, Ataru is can move around very quickly, but also loses oxygen more rapidly than other characters too, while the Holinger-Z robot is slow, has slow oxygen consumption, and can survive a hit by a block once before losing a life. There are a whole host of characters with different abilities, and this adds a fair amount of variety to the game.
Time Attack is a race to the finish, with puzzle-like levels set out in front of you with blocks that reduce your time when touched scattered about.
Pressure Driller is a mode where you are running away from a giant drill coming down from the top, while attempting to collect power capsules so you can launch fireballs at the drill and eventually destroy it.
Overall, the gameplay is very frantic, yet remains strategy-oriented. 10/10

Sound: 7/10
Not much to say here. Cheery tunes accompany some different drilling sound effects. At the end of a level you get some clear-sounding voice acting, which would be great if it weren't terribly monotonous.

Graphics: 7.5/10
2-D graphics that fit the simple nature of the game. Colorful and fun, think Kirby-style.

Control: 8/10
The control for this game is good, very well laid out for the DS unit. There is touch screen usage if you choose to, although it doesn't work as well as D-pad. My only quarrel is the size of the D-pad, although that's the DS' fault.

Overall, it's a fun puzzle game that offers a great deal of replay value, thanks to different modes and several different characters. A delight to play, and one of the best DS games out, currently.

RENT OR BUY?
Well, if you like puzzle games, DEFINITE BUY. For everyone else, you will probably like it, but you might want to rent it to be completely sure, although I wouldn't stop you from just buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/04