Dig Dug Review

Pump action

In case you're too young to have come across this retro staple, Dig Dug's a remarkably straightforward game that takes all of 10 seconds to pick up - much like every game of its time. Set on a single screen, the concept for each subterranean stage is to basically blow up the fire-breathing Fygars and the goggle-eyed Pookas that inhabit this underground lair. Armed with a pump, you move around the soil in one of four direction trying not to get snagged by either of your feisty foe, while waiting for a suitable opportunity to get close enough to pump them up four times until they burst.

It's Dig Dug! In High Def!

But sometimes you might rather just pump them up a little and then sneak past them in order to lure them to a nearby rock so that you can squish them and gain far more points in the process. Drop two rocks (on any level at any time) and a reward of some kind appears in the middle (be it a carrot, watermelon or even a Galaxian ship), allowing you to rack up your score even more.

Armed with just three lives (plus any you gain from meeting various points targets) the chances are you won't last too long on Dig Dug. You'll easily blast through the first handful of stages and eventually get a little overwhelmed by how quickly the Fygars and Pookas start moving towards you. Given that they start to move much quicker than you can, it becomes a bit of a struggle to weave your way around before you've got a whole bunch on your tail, and others coming at you from all sides. But it's short, sharp, addictive fun, and yet again, benefits hugely from the online Leaderboard, allowing you to prove yourself against any retrophiles out there.

Pad-bad

As with all of Namco's Live Arcade offerings, the acheivements are pretty easy to nab.

On the downside, the Xbox 360 pad is a wretched means of controlling Dig Dug. As with other four directional games (like Pac-Man, say) the analogue stick or d-pad just doesn't cut it when you're trying to make sharp, precise turns under pressure. You'll swear blind you've pressed up and yet it'll go left straight to your doom, and once the game starts asking you questions, you'll repeatedly suffer at the hands of the controller. A bad workman may blame his tools (frequently), but, seriously, this is another example of a game that demands an old-fashioned four-way joystick to get the most out of this otherwise flawless port.

In terms of other trivial embellishments, as you'll know by now, Namco Bandai don't really believe in messing around trying to tart up their back catalogue releases (unlike Konami, who routinely throw in reskins that everyone hates). And in case you were wondering, no, the sound hasn't been messed with either. Bless.

Inevitably, the achievements list piqued our attention, but they're all a bit Walter The Softy, to be honest. Thanks to the dubious decision to let you start at the last level you died on, you can easily rack up practically all the achievements by working your way through the game until you've collected all the various goodies that emerge every time you drop two rocks. There's actually only one achievement worth the name, and that's digging out an entire level, which is a phenomenal task.