Mr. Driller G (2001)

Mr. Driller G is a another entry in Namco's series of arcade puzzle games. As in the previous titles, the main objective is to control a miner character and dig through layers of multi-colored blocks to reach the deeper levels of a shaft and score points. As sections are removed, the whole structure becomes unstable and dangerous. When large pieces of the same color fall on top of each other, they automatically disappear. The miner can be squished by the crumbling stones, or suffocate by lack of oxygen. Air pills and power-ups are found scattered throughout the level, and must be collected to refill the supply, shown as a meter at the right side of the screen. Special brown blocks act as a barrier and have to be drilled several times to break, removing a portion of the remaining air after being destroyed. The single player game has three modes. In mission mode, the objective is to reach a specific depth and make as many points as possible, with several levels available to play right from the beginning. In scenario mode, cutscenes play between a linear succession of levels, where each shaft has to be completed to move the plot forwards. In time attack mode, the air pills are replaced with clocks that add a few seconds to the time remaining to reach the bottom of the mine. The normal arcade mode has multiplayer variations that can be played locally with two controllers, where the screen is split vertically in the middle showing two separate mine shafts for each player. In Driller Race, the objective is to reach the deep end of a randomly generated shaft as fast as possible, while in Driller Survival the players try to outlast each other in bottomless mines. There is an option called Net Driller, that generates passwords to be used on the official site for competitions and global rankings. Support for it was discontinued on January 30th, 2003.

Storyline

A.D 2000X in Tokyo, a mysterious occurrence of overflowing Blocks was halted by the actions of a Professional Excavator "Driller" by the name of Susumu Hori. Above ground, peace returned again. Half a year passed, suddenly the Blocks began to overflow in three nations. One after another America, India and Egypt became flooded in blocks. Susumu Hori and his Rival Driller, Anna Hottenmeyer; urgently began to dig to the depths of the earth. Meanwhile, Susumu's father, Taizou Hori; Susumu's elder brother, Ataru Hori; Anna's Robot Assistant, Horinger Z and Susumu's roommate, Puchi, were all digging to the depths of the earth, aiming for the resolution of this disaster. What is the probable cause of this latest incident? And, among the 6 Drillers, who will be the one to resolve this disaster? Our hero can drill up, down, left and right. Drilling through single blocks would take forever, so it's fortunate that blocks of the same color form into groups that vanish when only one of the blocks is drilled. This allows for chain reactions, since vanishing blocks will often cause other blocks to fall and form new groups. Alas, these falling blocks are also deadly if they hit Mr. Driller. If all Mr. Driller had to do was drill, life would be easy. But he also has to keep refilling his oxygen supply by collecting air capsules scattered throughout the blocks. The deeper he goes, the faster his air runs out. Hampering his progress even further are brown "X-blocks" that take five drill strikes to disappear and remove 20% of Mr. Driller's air when broken. This game is a Japan-only port of the original Arcade game of the same name.