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New Game: Mr. Driller Drill Spirits (JP)

Title: Mr. Driller Drill Spirits
Platform: Nintendo DS (JP)
Publisher: Namco

Where: Bic Camera
When: December 2
How Much: 4,315 yen (4,530 yen w/tax)

After hearing about all the stuff that didn't make it into the US version of Drill Spirits, I decided to go ahead and buy the Japanese version instead. As I mentioned previously, the Japanese version features wireless Single-Card Play for up to five players (very handy) and Dristone Mode, a cool single-player mode that I'll explain in a second. Sadly, both of these features are missing from the US version.

Since Christian is going to kill me if I don't tell him about Dristone Mode, let me explain:

Basically, Dristone Mode is a modified version of the normal single-player game with a slightly different set of rules. For starters, instead of a timer, you have an air supply that starts out at 100%. Every time you use your drill, you lose 1% of your air. Furthermore, if you get crushed by a block (i.e. lose a life), instead of dying, your air supply is cut by 20%. Since each stage is a specific size (300m, 500m, etc.), the point is to conserve enough air to make it to the goal without suffocating. If you run out of air, it's game over.

Along the way you'll come across multi-colored gems called Dristones that grant you special powers, i.e. destroy all blocks of a certain color, protect yourself from one hit, recover some air, and so on. Occasionally you'll also find air capsules that give you back 20% of your supply. The air capsules work the moment you touch them, but Dristones have to be accessed from a special subscreen.

If you've played any of the recent Driller games over the past three years, this mode might sound familiar; as far as I can tell, Dristone's gameplay first appeared in special "Dristone Stages" in the Scenario Mode of Mr. Driller G on PlayStation back in 2001. It resurfaced about a year later in the "Wonderful Pacteria" mode in Mr. Driller Ace on GBA. And most recently, a variation of it was found in the form of the awesome "Hole of Druaga" mode in Mr. Driller Drill Land on GameCube, which also had enemies, bosses and keys in addition to the usual Dristone play.

...And that pretty much sums up Dristone Mode. Now you know what you're missing. From what I've played so far, it seems pretty fun, since it allows you to pause and think about your moves, rather than just burning right through as fast as you can. The version in Hole of Druaga was a bit cooler cause of the whole RPG theme, but this is still quite good and definitely worth seeking out on import if you're a serious Driller fan.

Posted by john tv at December 3, 2004 08:38 PM