Dig Dug is a 1-2 player arcade game in which you have to use your shovel to dig your way through the earth. Stopping you from doing this are two monsters, called Pooka and Fygar, who will continually chase you around. The only weapon that you carry is an air pump, which you can use to inflate the monsters to the point where they explode. (if you start to inflate them but stop doing so, the monsters will get turned back to their normal selves). Furthermore, rocks are scattered throughout the earth, and you can use these rocks to squash them. If the monsters do not find you for several seconds, they will eventually get turned into ghosts, which are able to walk through the earth. They are invincible and cannot be killed. From time to time, vegetables will appear in the center, and you can get these for points.
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I do not consider myself part of the inflation community.
Dig Dug was one of those arcade games I can’t resist playing if I am at an arcade. Like most of these classic arcade games I first played it on a plug and play in the early 2000s and immediately got hooked. For those of you who have never played basically this is kinda like a side scrolling maze arcade game where you play as a protagonist with a harpoon gun who digs tunnels into the ground and creates mazes. A fun and unique concept where the player creates the map essentially to eliminate the enemies. The enemies consist of Dragons and these monkey looking things called Pookas. The harpoon gun thing inflates the enemies into ballons, and they burst and the only other way to kill enemies is by strategically crushing them with rocks by dinging under them at the right time. The objective is to kill all of the enemies and the enemies usually become solid in tunnels but can also turn into ghosts and fly though the ground. The last few enemies usually try to escape the stage and whether they do or not the next stage is loaded. That’s basically the gameplay loop for DigDug its simple but feels very unique for its time compared to a lot of the other arcade games that existed. I believe this game is actually beatable and not infinite stages, but I’ve never seen most people get past the first 20 or so stages and I’m pretty sure there are a couple hundred so like most games from that time it gets really hard but out of a lot of the older arcades I actually can usually sweep through a decent number of stages. The music and FX of Dig Dug were always some of my favorite and graphically its nothing too incredible with the screen mostly just being dirt but its still a great classic game that’s pretty balanced and is all about strategically moving around the map and not getting yourself corned. I love old arcade games, but this is one I think I recommend the most because of its fun and unique nature.
10/10