Dig Dug II

Dig Dug II (ディグダグⅡ, Digu Dagu Tsu), subtitled Trouble in Paradise for Bandai's American NES port, is the arcade sequel to Dig Dug, released by Namco in 1985. It runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware but with a video system like that used in Mappy, The Tower of Druaga and Grobda (without the DAC).

A reimagined version for the PC titled Dig Dug Island, featuring online multiplayer and graphical style of Dig Dug Remix, was released in 2008 exclusively in Japan. However, the game's servers were shutdown in just under a year, leaving it now unplayable.

Gameplay

Unlike the first game, Dig Dug II takes place on an island with an overhead view. The goal is simple: to kill all the enemies on the round. There are two types of enemies; Pookas (the round red monsters with goggles) only have the power to kill a player by touching him, but Fygars (the dragons) have the power to kill a player either by touching him or horizontally breathing fire to burn him.

In this game, Taizo Hori (the player's character) is armed with two weapons. One is the pump from the original Dig Dug, which is used to inflate enemies until they bust. The other is a jackhammer, which can be used at "fault lines" on the map to create faults in the ground. If both ends of a system of faults reach the water, the ground surrounded by them will sink into the ocean, killing all creatures on it, including Taizo himself. The points earned from this depend on how many enemies are killed at once. Once three pieces of land have been cut off an island, a bonus vegetable will appear somewhere on what remains of the island, which can be eaten for extra points. After the thirty-first round, the rounds will be identical to the first sixteen rounds before it. When only one, two or (on later rounds) three enemies remain on the island, the enemies will eventually head for the edge of the island and jump into the water, killing themselves and the player points are lost. If the arcade operator has set this game's "round select" DIP switch setting to "on", the player will also have the option of starting from Round 1 but Rounds 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are unselectable on this screen.

The only home version of the game was for the NES, which Bandai released in Japan on April 18, 1986 and in North America during 1989.

Ports and re-releases

In 2005, Dig Dug II was ported to the PlayStation Portable as part of Namco Museum Battle Collection, and was included in Namco Museum DS which was released for the Nintendo DS on September 18, 2007. The game was also included in Namco Museum Virtual Arcade in 2008 and was released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on October 20, 2009, along with the inceptive title. Both Dig Dug games are available as part of the Namco Museum Megamix compilation for the Wii, which (much unlike the Virtual Console Arcade versions) was only released in North America.

Different variations of Dig Dug II

There are two versions of this game: a harder new version, and an easier old version. Both versions have completely different rounds. The newer version was a lot more common in the arcades than the original version, and almost every port of this game is of the newer version. Both Namco Museum Battle Collection and Namco Museum DS are notable for including both versions. The Japanese Wii Virtual Console release contains the original version. The newer version also appears to be designed for higher point opportunities on its early rounds.

External links

• Dig Dug II at the Killer List of Videogames
• Dig Dug II at the Arcade History database
• Dig Dug Island official site (archive)