This is another of my favorate video games of all time and another childhood gem of mine as it's one of the first video games I've ever played. Yeah, I was a kid in the 80's and I remember playing this game at the arcade a lot.
It was just so much fun, yeah it's simplistic but that's to me is what makes the game all the more fun, as an old saying goes sometimes less is more; and I still play the game to this day.
There really isn't much of a plot line, just that your some sort of miner trying to kill all the monsters underground before they kill you. That's it in a nutshell but that's fine by me, video games back then weren't concerned about story they were about doing, which is fine by me because that is one of the main reasons I play video games just to play.
I really like the level design as they are colorful including the monsters and the main character. Each of the level are always different as the layout on the open tunnels changes and even the difficulty ramps up as the odds also change and the most get just a little faster and less patient.
What I really like about the game is other than your pump as your main weapon your best weapon is your brain. The pump is a daft but really cool weapon (let alone non cleche weapon), as you fling a grabling hook hose onto the monsters and just pump them up like ballons until they blow up, I just always thought it was cool just seeing the blow up animation effect and sound of the explosion which is just music to my ears. Though you can also use that pump to buy you some time in case you need to get to a different position by just simply blowing the monster up and run away. However this pump as a catch as it's a singular focused tool, blowing up the enimes takes a while as several others will close in on you, also this pump can only blow up one at a time. So you have to use it wisely, pick you spots carefully.
As I said before your best weapon is your brain, as you have the ability to dig tunnels. This is a really cool aspect because it means you have control of your enviorment and have the freedom to do whatever you want with it, which at the time was a unique aspect in games. You can dig tunnels not just to get to the other tunnels and outrun your enimies, but you can create traps for them which is cool. One by diging slightly longer tunnels or twist so you can get one of the monsters to walk right where you want them to, or even to help get distance and slow a group of monsters chasing you. Or another cool trick is to dig to sneakily nail your enimies by diging near the tunnel where a monster or monsters is stationed, but not all that way to them instead to create a thin enough wall where they can't break though but your pump hose can; in short a stealth kill.
Though I feel the best aspects are the music as you dig which is fun music and has became a classic tune that you can possibly now get as a ring tone; but this music also sort of acts as a sound cue. The other is trying to lure the monsters toward the bolder, it's just as satisfying and cool seeing the monsters getting squashed like pancakes against it and that splat sound effect is another beautiful melody. But the bolders are very helpful because they help widle the odds down and you don't solely rely on the pump so much.
The diging though also has a catch, when you dig you walking/running speed slows down; even though the monsters aren't as fast as you are there are still so many of them that can easily close in on your position so you have to pick your digging spots carefully.
This is an arcade classic worth digging up.
Rating: 4 stars
