Mr. Driller Drill Spirits

"Want A Good Puzzler? Look Elsewhere."

Mr Driller: Drill Spirits is a puzzle game that was released on the Nintendo DS at launch. The DS had very few games at the time, so Mr Driller really got a lot of attention for being the first puzzle game to be released for the Nintendo DS. I have never played a Mr Driller game before, but playing Drill Spirits has not made me think about experiencing the series further.

A Canvas of Simplicity

Cutesy is the best word to describe the graphics in Mr Driller: Drill Spirits. That isn't a bad thing, its just the graphics are very simple and do not push the graphics card on the DS far, at all. The simplicity doesn't do much to help Mr Driller. The blocks could be made sharper and the character models in-game could be much more detailed. However. the character models in the menus and during cutscenes are great and the Big Driller in Pressure Driller mode is very well done, as well. The graphics are merely okay, though they do get the job done.

Blast It or Mute It?

I laughed very hard when I initially heard some of the voiceovers for this game. They are absolutely horrendous, though it is more amusing to listen to then to read the text. An example of this is when Puchi the dog say bark rather than actually barking. Essentially, the voiceovers are horrible, but mildly amusing. The other sounds in the game are well done. The music is very upbeat, which may get on some peoples nerves after awhile.

Drilling Prowess

Mr. Driller is a mediocre game. It is sometimes mildly fun to play, but the bad nearly outweigh the good . Gameplay is the most important part of any game and Mr Driller tries really hard to draw you in, though it doesn't exactly succeed all the time. Every character has a drill, though it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. At the beginning only Susumu is unlocked. Basically, you use you drill to blow through blocks. If you have 3 or more blocks of the same type attached together, you only have to drill one of the blocks to clear them all. Your goal is to drill to a certain depth underground. Another factor to add to the strategy is the Air meter. The farther into the ground you dig, the more air you lose. Collecting the air capsules will refill your air meter by twenty percent. Also, blocks can occasionally come down and fall on top of you. This is when you lose lives. This may sound quite simple, which it is, but lots of skill is required to beat the further depth goals. There is also a store where you can buy more lives and energy barriers and such, but if you use items on levels, you cannot receive a high score, thereby resulting in you merely passing the level to get further in the game. Playing through Mission Driller unlocks other characters, such as Puchi. In Mission Driller mode, you travel around the world and try to dig to a certain depth before you run out of air or lives. In Pressure Driller mode, you dig through the ground to get away from the Big Driller that is chasing after you. This requires a lot of strategy because you have to manage your air supply, not be hit by falling blocks, not be hit by the large driller that is chasing you, and you must collect the fireball capsules to hit the Big Driller's flower, which periodically comes out of the large drill below the Driller. Also, there is Time Attack mode, where you drill through a level in record time while collecting time savers and other items to reduce your time. This is a wickedly hard mode to beat as only Susumu. Finally, there is multiplayer mode. None of my friends have a Nintendo DS or this game yet, so I am not scoring this game based on multiplayer. This game gets very repetitive after an hour or two, but still provides a small amount of enjoyment in the first few hours. Overall, the gameplay in Mr Driller is interesting, but is ultimately tired and boring.

Drill Frustration

Using the Touch Screen to control is very hard in this game. It is better to just use the arrows and the A button. The controls are a whole lot more responsive when using this control scheme. The Touch Screen controls are tedious and very difficult to use. This game could have been released on the Game Boy Advance to the very same results. In other words, the Touch Screen has no major point in Drill Spirits.

Drill Deeper?

Mr Driller contains great replayability for a puzzle game. Once you have beat Mission Driller mode, there is still Pressure Driller mode and Time Attack mode to beat. You can also buy all the items for all the different modes and you can improve on your records. Very good job for a puzzle game.

Mr Driller is an occasionally fun game for the Nintendo DS that is a okay diversion from the other games that came out near the launch of the DS. While it may last you until other Nintendo DS games are released, it is far from an essential purchase. A good thing is you can play for 10 minute bursts or even 2 hour gaming sessions, it's entirely up to you.

Mr Driller is definitely a game to rent. It starts out okay, but become very repetitive and tedious. If you dislike puzzle games or are skeptical about buying it, stay as far away as you can. There is nothing new to the puzzler genre and not enough to warrant a full purchase if you are skeptical in the first place.

5 out of 10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05, Updated 08/24/06