Mr. Driller

The Mr. Driller games are puzzle action games and have been described as a cross between Puyo Puyo and Dig Dug.[4] Players control a character that must destroy, or "drill", colorful formations of blocks in order to reach the bottom of a well.[5] 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.[5] 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.[4][6] 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.[4] 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.[7] Mr. Driller was ported to several platforms, including the Dreamcast,[8] PlayStation,[9] and Game Boy Color.[10]

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,[11] however, the game wasn't released in North America and Europe until 2005.[4]

The third entry, Mr. Driller G, was released in 2001 for arcades and later the PlayStation.[12] 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.[11]

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.[4] 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.[13] Though Drill Land received the most acclaim out of any game in the series, its exclusivity to the GameCube made it a commercial failure.[4] Namco became less interested in supporting the franchise as a result.[4] 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.[4] 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.[4][14][15]

Namco Bandai Games became the owner of the Mr. Driller intellectual property after Namco's 2005 merger with Bandai. Mr. Driller Online (2008) for the Xbox 360, Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop (2009) for DSiWare, and Mr. Driller W (2009) for WiiWare all recycle art assets and pre-established concepts from earlier games.[16] Yoshizawa considered Drill Till You Drop to be the "culmination" of the series and likely the last one he would develop.[6] By the early 2010s, Namco Bandai largely abandoned the property outside several mobile phone spin-offs.[4]

In 2020, Bandai Namco Entertainment began to remaster of Drill Land for the Nintendo Switch and PC as part of its Encore series of remasters.[17] The decision to remaster the game was based on the success of the remake for Katamari Damacy (2004).[18] Yoshizawa, who had left Bandai Namco in 2016, supervised the project.[18] The remaster was released in 2020 worldwide, titled Mr. Driller Encore in Japan.[18] Maya Ito, the producer for Encore, says Bandai Namco would consider continuing the series if the remake was popular enough.[4][18]

In Japan, the Mr. Driller series was commercially and critically successful, and its characters have become synonymous with the Namco brand. The original received the 1st Arcadia Grand Prize from the Japanese magazine Monthly Arcadia, and Namco received a prestigious award from Edge for Drill Land. Famitsu awarded the Game Boy Color port of Mr. Driller, Mr. Driller G, and the Game Boy Advance port of Mr. Driller 2 the Silver Hall of Fame awards,[39] while Mr. Driller A and Drill Land received the Gold Hall of Fame award.[40]

Western perception of the series has varied depending on the game, though consensus agrees its gameplay is simple and addictive. The Dreamcast conversion of Mr. Driller received negative attention from the press for being technically inferior to Namco's previous Dreamcast offering, the 3D weapon-based fighter Soulcalibur. Journalist Jeremy Parish speculates this backlash resulted in the series receiving a largely lukewarm reception outside Japan.[4]

Mr. Driller G and Drill Land have been ranked as the best in the series for their quality and amount of content,[1][4] while Online, W, and Drill Till You Drop have been listed as the weakest for their poor presentation and lack of innovation. Online in particular was negatively received for its online multiplayer, which multiple reviews found to have been unfinished and "broken".[41][42] Drill Spirits and home ports of Mr. Driller and Mr. Driller 2 were criticized for being barren of content, though the Japanese and European releases of Drill Spirits have been identified as being a far bigger improvement over the North American version for their inclusion of additional game modes.

• Official website (Japanese)