Dig Dug is my favourite classic arcade game. Something where both its mechanical depth and its immediate charm work spectacularly well in tandem. The experience of learning how to get good at an old arcade game often involves outside learning, reading up on clandestine techniques discovered from decades old Japan-only player guides and deeplearning AI bot routines, but Dig Dug gives you enough on-screen to intuit how to become a better player.

It's comparable to Pac-Man and QIX, but offers a far more compelling set of rules than either of them. A single-screen game where monsters roam and chase you, but you can move in any direction. You create tunnels as you move, and when an enemy gets in your tunnel, they beeline straight for you. This can be exploited to lead them towards traps, crushing them with rocks, or if you get desperate, you can take them out by getting your pump and inflating them until they burst like a balloon. The lower on the screen you kill an enemy, the higher your score, and if you manage to crush multiple enemies at the same time, that'll increase your score further.

I think a lot of people try Dig Dug, only use the pump, and dismiss it as a bit of a cute novelty, but once you learn that your priority should be crushing enemies, it really starts to come together. That's when the draw towards trying again becomes truly powerful.

When you become really familiar with the game, you'll start to learn the characteristics of Pooka and Fygar AI. You'll be temporarily inflating enemies and running away, to keep them at bay without blowing the points you could get from them. You'll develop strategies you'll lean back on in specific scenarios. I've developed a very specific route through Level 1, in an attempt to reliably maximise my score early on, but I don't even know if it's the best way to approach that layout of tunnels, rocks and enemies. That's what I like so much about Dig Dug. I'm leaning back on what's worked for me, but another player might have completely different solutions. It's why I've largely tried to block-out professional and speedrunning communities. My relationship with the game is the one sacred element in my enjoyment of videogames. I don't want to be told the "right way" to do it. Just leave me alone with Dig Dug. I don't need to get Twin Galaxies in on this shit. I'm not interested in learning someone else's dance routine.

It's that freedom that Dig Dug presents. You can go in any direction at any point. It's Pac-Man, but you're creating the maze yourself. You can get greedy and invite the whole screen of enemies to chase you towards a trap, but you'd better know exactly what you're working with. An unexpected detour could be the death of you.

On my best sessions, I've been setting up false paths to slow down enemies, and seeing them reliably waste their time in empty corridors while I construct my master trap elsewhere. When you know what you can really do with a Dig Dug screen, there's no denying that this game is lightyears ahead of its competition. There's so much freedom, and the threat of failure is always real, present and on-screen. The risk/reward dynamic is so tangible and alluring. Knowing my own tastes, it's a game I'd strongly recommend to classic Metal Gear fans.

One thing I'd like to make clear is that players should be wary of the console ports. If it's not running the arcade version, you probably don't want to waste your time on it. I've been really impressed with the MSX version, replicating the precise AI quirks of the arcade game in a version with more rudimentary presentation, and I'm able to approach scenarios with the same techniques I've learned on the arcade version. The Famicom/NES version tends to get ported a lot, and I'd strongly discourage the purchase of My Arcade systems that emulate it. If you really want to challenge yourself to learn the depth of the game's quirks, I'd encourage you to try the PS4/Xbox One ARCADE GAME SERIES: DIG DUG release and chase the "Dig" achievement, where you have to clear an entire screen of dirt while keeping at least two enemies active on the screen. It's not something you'll be able to do without knowing the game inside out, but again, you'll be able to intuit all of that by playing it.

Dig Dug is a game I'll never stop playing. Something that has really built my respect for Namco and simplistic game design. Everyone likes a Pooka. It's knowing how much you can get from them that really makes Dig Dug great.

Many people have that one arcade game that they’re really great at and can’t get enough of. It’s usually the most popular ones: Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Galaga. But for me, Dig Dug has always been that one arcade game I’m pretty good at and have a slight love for.

You play as the main character ‘Dig Dug’ as you go underground in an attempt to kill every enemy, and that’s kind of it. That’s how every level pretty much operates. You’ll have the usual enemies: the red things (actually named pookas) and the dragons (hate them). You have to basically blow them up like a balloon and then you’ll defeat them…pretty simple. And then there’s the dragons flames.

Cute characters, love this game, pretty good gameplay, those red things

Something I've never appreciated about this game before until now is how it models itself after classic cartoons. Obviously there's stuff like the way the music starts and stops with you moving, and the fact that inflating someone to death feels like something right out of Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes. But also, when I tried hitting an enemy with a falling rock and ended up hitting myself because I was too focused on having the enemy follow me, I felt like Wile E Coyote in that moment. There are lot's of little interactions I had with the Pookas and Fygar that felt very Road Runner esque, and the setting even resembles a desert. And of course the music that plays when you clear a level sounds exactly like the kind of music that plays as an iris centers on the main character's face at the end of a cartoon. It all fairly obvious when you put it all together, but I never noticed until now. I'm always impressed with how many different genres and influences were all over the classic Namco arcade line-up.

An arcade classic whose legacy has always been undermined compared to Pac-Man and its other Namco brethren. It’s amusing to me that this is how history has played out because I always preferred it to the game with the gluttonous glob of sliced cheese that ranks among the highest echelons of video game icons. Why? I’m not entirely sure, since all of the second-generation arcade games could only hold my attention for so long until I nodded off into space, Dig Dug included (I know, I’m spoiled). Maybe it’s because injecting a pump into your enemies and inflating them to the point where they burst is the most gangster shit I’ve ever seen.

Take that, Tommy Vercetti, Carl Johnson, and every other Grand Theft Auto protagonist. Don’t fuck with Dig Dug.

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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com

I've played this one before but this time I really spent some time on it. I felt like I did pretty good but I don't know maybe I'm terrible. I guess that's part of good game design though. I felt accomplished and successful after only maybe 15 minutes and still wanted to get better. It can get pretty hectic after multiple enemies start appearing in the same tunnel as you so you have to try to utilize those rocks to wipe them out at once instead of the trusty pump and pop method. If you see it give it a try though it isn't a standard arcade game.

Peter: But since we're all gonna die, there's one more secret I feel I have to share with you. I did not care for Dig Dug.
Lois: What?
Peter: Did not care for Dig Dug.
Chris: How can you even say that, dad?
Peter: Didn't like it.
Lois: Peter, it's so good! It's like the perfect arcade game!
Peter: This is what everyone always said. Whenever they say...
Chris: Pookas, Fygard, I mean, you never see, Taizo Hori!
Peter: Fine. Fine. Fine character, did not like the game.
Brian: Why not?
Peter: Did not...couldn't get into it.
Lois: Explain yourself. What didn't you like about it?
Peter: It insists upon itself, Lois.
Lois: What?
Peter: It insists upon itself.
Lois: What does that even mean?
Chris: Because it has a valid point to make, it's insisted!
Peter: It takes forever getting in; you spend like six and a half levels... You know, I can't get through, I've never even played my 3cc are over. I've never used 3cc.
Chris: You've never used 3cc?!
Stewie: How can you say you don't like it if you haven't even given it a chance?
Lois: I agree with Stewie. It's not even fair.
Peter: I have tried on three separate occasions to get through it, and I get to the level where 6 guys spawn and the map changes a bit.
Lois: Yeah, it's a great map. I love their spacing.
Peter: I have no idea what they're doing there. It's like they're phasing trough walls... You know, that's where I lose interest in it.
Lois: You know what, Peter-
Chris: They're ghosts!
Lois: The phasing that they're doing is an attack subtlety; it's something you don't plan around coming.
Peter: I love Galaga. That is my answer to that statement.
Lois: Exactly.
Peter: Well, there you go.
Lois: Whatever.
Chris: I like that game too.

Gran parte de que esta caja de arena funcione es gracias a la inteligencia artificial. Se trata de un tipo de IA, común en los 80, perdida (no se si para siempre) en algún punto de la historia. A cada nivel notas cómo sube la dificultad a través del comportamiento de los enemigos. Percibes su agresividad aumentando de forma sutil pero evidente. Antes, un Pooka que no te alcanzaba al girar, ahora se te anticipa y te arrincona sin que te des cuenta. Exprime la virtud de ser a tiempo real, con variables analógicas de las que se reflejan en los márgenes, imposibles de replicar en una adaptación por turnos. Contrario al tipo de acción que se destila hoy en día en juegos de "estilo retro", de patrones a los que hay que responder de forma concreta, que bien podrían adaptarse a acción por turnos sin perder nada en el camino. La IA en Dig Dug es atrevida, te lanza bolas curvas, pero es a su vez predecible con la experiencia. Nada fácil de poner en texto, simplemente una respuesta natural que desarrollas a base de convivir con estas criaturas. Comienzas a comprender cómo se comportan ante ciertas situaciones y lo aplicas en el contexto inmediato y siempre variable que proporciona la mecánica de cavar tus propios senderos. Con el paso de las partidas te ves trazando calles trampa o bucles donde marear a un enemigo y ganar espacio y, cuando te sientes con confianza, te vuelves más ambicioso en tus planes a medio plazo. Buscas que te sigan en fila india la mayor cantidad de monstruos para dejar caer esa roca que has estado reservando desde el comienzo del nivel. Es planificación sobre la marcha y es improvisación. Es riesgo-recompensa gracias a la forma fluida de puntuar. Es sencillez en presentación y sofisticación oculta. Es honestidad al presentar toda la información en pantalla y pillería al esconder las leyes invisibles que rigen el comportamiento de los enemigos. Es esencia pura del arcade.

Its mfin dig dug man
I had the GBA namco museum as a kid and played this game the most out of all the included titles. It's got charm for days, which is pretty typical of namco arcade titles of the time. The gameplay itself is also somewhat deep, due to the fact that you can essentially make your own paths for the enemies to go through (or just watch them clip through all of it and beeline at you, that's always fun). Using the rocks to score is always satisfying and using the pump effectively to get enemies through thin walls/juggle between multiple enemies surrounding you in order to survive is fun and kept me thinking about what to do next in order to survive. The loops are actually rather short, unlike other namco games I think it would be pretty easy to get good enough at the game to clear at least one loop on one credit. That being said though my boy hori taizo isn't the most nimble creature, especially when turning, and sometimes the hitboxes on enemies clipping through the dirt can be a bit weird which led to a few deaths I felt could have been avoidable. Regardless, it's an arcade classic for a reason, and that movement jingle will remain in my head for the rest of eternity. Character design peaked with the invention of the pooka