Dig Dug II

About Dig Dug II

Dig Dug II (1985) is Namco's sequel to Dig Dug, replacing underground tunnelling with an overhead island where Taizo Hori sinks chunks of land, and enemies, into the sea.

Dig Dug II in Depth

Pookas, round red monsters with goggles, and fire-breathing Fygar dragons return, but the side-on tunnelling of the original gives way to an overhead view of an island. Pookas kill by touch, while Fygars can also breathe fire. Taizo Hori, the player's character, carries two weapons: the familiar air pump, which inflates enemies until they burst, and a jackhammer used at fault lines to crack the ground.

When a system of faults splits the island in two, the smaller section sinks into the ocean, killing everything on it, Taizo included if the player is careless, and the score depends on how many enemies go down at once. After three pieces have been cut away, a bonus vegetable appears on what remains, worth extra points if eaten. When only one or two enemies remain, or three on later rounds, they head for the shore and jump into the water, ending the round. Computer and Video Games found it difficult but worth playing, easing with practice, though retrospective analysis blames its failure on its departure from the original's maze-chase play, its timing and the loss of free movement.

Making Dig Dug II

Namco developed and published it for arcades in 1985 as the sequel to 1982's Dig Dug. It saw some success in its first few months but was largely unsuccessful and far less popular than its predecessor. It was ported to the Famicom in Japan in 1986, the NES in North America in 1989 and the Famicom Disk System in 1990, and later reached the Wii Virtual Console in Japan in 2009.