Probably my all-time favorite classic arcade game

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

Dig Dug is unreal and underrated (as much as a Namco Arcade classic can be). Dig Dug does take a lot from PAC-Man, it’s a maze chaser with a twist… Instead of having one maze, you build the mazes through digging through stages destroying foes through inflation or strategically placing them under a soon to falling rock.

Dig Dug is intensely addictive, a lot is strategy of taking down individual foes where possible and trapping larger numbers chasing you on foot under a rock for huge combos. Foes can sort of phase through the dirt yet to be shovelled so there is some complication present, it’s not all by the grid lines like PAC-Man. I tried the Arcade and NES conversions and found them both enjoyable!