Something Fast
14-04-2006, 12:17 AM
There's not much of a story to MD: DS. The main character is sent off to find all the Drillers, who've gone on holiday around the world. Or something like that. The story's unimportant really, as what we've got here is a great little puzzle game for the Nintendo DS.
The player guides the character, who is holding a very big drill, down shafts. These shafts are full of various coloured blocks that connect up to each other if two adjacent blocks are the same colour. Pretty stock standard for a puzzle game, really. This isn't as easy as it seems however since if you have blocks fall on you, it hurts.
There are four different modes of play. Firstly, there's the standard mission mode. You've got a number of lives and you die if you either run out of air (which steadily decreases as you play) or if you have something fall on you. The objective of this mode is to get to the bottom. A time trial mode also features, in which you go through the same motions as with the mission mode, but have to get to the end in a certain amount of time. In another mode, "Dristone Driller" you're trying to get to the bottom, but with each bit of drilling you do, you lose air. This offers a more strategic, slower approach than the other modes. Finally, there's "Pressure Driller", in which you have to collect red things to fire at a gigantic drilling robot-bug thing before it hits you.
In a puzzle game like this where most of the game is extremely fast paced, the controls are important. The control pad controls in MD: DS are nice, responsive and work really well. As befitting a DS game, you can use the stylus to control the character, but this is far less responsive than the control pad and seems more an afterthought than anything. It would've been nice if the stylus was more useful, but it's more of a novelty than anything.
The sound and music aren't too bad considering it's on a handheld console. There's a bit of digitised speech in the game, and the in-game music fit the theme of the game rather well. As it's a handheld game though, you still don't miss anything if you turn the volume down or off entirely. As these things go however, the sound and music quality are rather good.
The graphics of this game are excellent. They're clear and bright, and look generally great. This applies to the in-game graphics as well as the menu screens, the end of stage stuff and generally everything. Why there seems to be a strange quilted theme going on in the menus though, I have no idea. The dual screens are used to good advantage, showing either a status screen or an upper portion of the playing area.
There are a few pros and cons either way as to the replayability of this game. Firstly, it's the sort of game you can play for a few minutes on the train or while waiting for something then put down (though a few minutes can easily stretch to a few hours). The gameplay is definitely addictive, as you gain a kind of puzzle game Zen state. The game is let down however, by the lack of gameplay modes. Sure, four different modes are not to be sniffed at, but a few other modes wouldn't go astray. Also, as I was warned by the guy behind the counter at the games store, this is a game than can get you very aggravated if you're not in the right frame of mind and don't like losing. So, people with blood pressure problems and short fuses should probably stay away.
As I don't know anyone with a Nintendo DS who'd want to play this with me, I can't comment on the multiplayer aspect of the game.
Summary:
This is a great little game for the Nintendo DS. Since it's a game you can play for a few minutes or a few hours, it suits perfectly the portable nature of the DS. The graphics are nice and clear, but don't put as much strain on the battery as some graphics intensive games such as Animal Crossing: Wild World, which is a definite bonus. This is a game most people into puzzle games should like a fair bit, if not love. Definitely worth playing.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2582/mrdrillerdrillspirits16xl.jpg http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7954/drillspiritsndsl4zw.jpg
Crazy fun times to be had!
The player guides the character, who is holding a very big drill, down shafts. These shafts are full of various coloured blocks that connect up to each other if two adjacent blocks are the same colour. Pretty stock standard for a puzzle game, really. This isn't as easy as it seems however since if you have blocks fall on you, it hurts.
There are four different modes of play. Firstly, there's the standard mission mode. You've got a number of lives and you die if you either run out of air (which steadily decreases as you play) or if you have something fall on you. The objective of this mode is to get to the bottom. A time trial mode also features, in which you go through the same motions as with the mission mode, but have to get to the end in a certain amount of time. In another mode, "Dristone Driller" you're trying to get to the bottom, but with each bit of drilling you do, you lose air. This offers a more strategic, slower approach than the other modes. Finally, there's "Pressure Driller", in which you have to collect red things to fire at a gigantic drilling robot-bug thing before it hits you.
In a puzzle game like this where most of the game is extremely fast paced, the controls are important. The control pad controls in MD: DS are nice, responsive and work really well. As befitting a DS game, you can use the stylus to control the character, but this is far less responsive than the control pad and seems more an afterthought than anything. It would've been nice if the stylus was more useful, but it's more of a novelty than anything.
The sound and music aren't too bad considering it's on a handheld console. There's a bit of digitised speech in the game, and the in-game music fit the theme of the game rather well. As it's a handheld game though, you still don't miss anything if you turn the volume down or off entirely. As these things go however, the sound and music quality are rather good.
The graphics of this game are excellent. They're clear and bright, and look generally great. This applies to the in-game graphics as well as the menu screens, the end of stage stuff and generally everything. Why there seems to be a strange quilted theme going on in the menus though, I have no idea. The dual screens are used to good advantage, showing either a status screen or an upper portion of the playing area.
There are a few pros and cons either way as to the replayability of this game. Firstly, it's the sort of game you can play for a few minutes on the train or while waiting for something then put down (though a few minutes can easily stretch to a few hours). The gameplay is definitely addictive, as you gain a kind of puzzle game Zen state. The game is let down however, by the lack of gameplay modes. Sure, four different modes are not to be sniffed at, but a few other modes wouldn't go astray. Also, as I was warned by the guy behind the counter at the games store, this is a game than can get you very aggravated if you're not in the right frame of mind and don't like losing. So, people with blood pressure problems and short fuses should probably stay away.
As I don't know anyone with a Nintendo DS who'd want to play this with me, I can't comment on the multiplayer aspect of the game.
Summary:
This is a great little game for the Nintendo DS. Since it's a game you can play for a few minutes or a few hours, it suits perfectly the portable nature of the DS. The graphics are nice and clear, but don't put as much strain on the battery as some graphics intensive games such as Animal Crossing: Wild World, which is a definite bonus. This is a game most people into puzzle games should like a fair bit, if not love. Definitely worth playing.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2582/mrdrillerdrillspirits16xl.jpg http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7954/drillspiritsndsl4zw.jpg
Crazy fun times to be had!