As featured in Retrogaming Times Monthly issue #88, September 2011.

Two issues ago we took a look at Taizo Hori's original adventure, Dig Dug, which was released on the Famicom but was passed over on the NES.  Three years after Dig Dug's arcade release, Namco followed it up with a sequel, aptly named Dig Dug II.  In following what I consider the trend that sequels to video games in the 1980's adhered to, it was a pretty big departure from the original.  Rather than being set underground and based around a vertical maze chase, Dig Dug II takes place up on the surface of a series of islands.  The only similarity to the stage design of the original game is that rocks still fall down - in this case the "rocks" being the islands you move on and "down" being parts of said islands sinking into the ocean.

Taizo still has his special harpooning air pump which functions much the same way it did in the first game.  Once the air pump is attached to a monster, they are pumped full of air until they explode.  As before, if a monster is only partially inflated it will become stunned and unable to hurt Taizo until deflating completely.  While the stun and run strategy doesn't really come into play until the more difficult stages of Dig Dug, it's a skill that needs to be mastered early on in Dig Dug II.  In addition to the familiar air pump, Taizo also has a new tool in his battle against the Pookas and Frygars: the jackhammer.  Each island has a series of dark areas, essentially wooden stakes in the ground where the island can be cracked open.  By riding the jackhammer across these points, a crack will appear on the ground in the same direction that Taizo is traveling.  By linking these cracks, sections of the island will break off and erode into the water, taking any enemies (or Taizo) with them for big bonus points.  The part of the island that sinks and the part that remains is based upon how much total land mass is left with the bigger chunk remaining dry.  Corralling enemies onto a part of the island that you have been slowly getting ready to carve off and then dropping the whole works into the water at once is the main attraction of this new game play addition.  However as with the first game, the main goal is to eliminate all enemies on the stage.  Just like the first game the last enemy will attempt to flee, in this case jumping into the drink, if Taizo can't catch him in time.  Although the game was less popular than the original, it too had a Famicom port and it was actually published on the NES by Bandai.

The only control difference over the original Dig Dug is the second button for using the jackhammer, so transitioning the controls over to the NES control pad is free of any issues.  Dig Dug II is often cited as being a very difficult game, primarily in that all the enemies are free to come and go as they please right from the beginning of the stage.  Unlike the first game, there are no closed off tunnels or rock formations that the Pookas and Frygars are initially confined by.  Both enemies can fly as they did in the first game, giving them the advantage of moving diagonally as well as being able to cross gaps in the current island.  This is the primary reason the stun and run strategy is something that has to be brought out fairly early, the enemies are simply always right behind.

In following with the first game, Dig Dug II runs in a vertical orientation but a solid job was done to scale the game to a horizontal aspect for the home version.  Everything is accurately resized without having to use a large status sidebar that many NES conversions of this vintage were subject to.  The enemy sprites are slightly enhanced over their original NES design and are well done within NES hardware limitations.  With the exception of a little missing additional color detail, Taizo looks great and even sports his jackhammer on his back when not in use, just as he did in the arcade version.  The individual stages are accurately represented and match to the arcade original, only lacking the arcade version's higher detail and color depth.  Audio is spot on as with most of these Namco ports.  Although one could say they were playing it safe with these arcade conversions, they almost always did a solid job.

I should note that there are actually two different versions of the Dig Dug II arcade game.  It's actually pretty common to have different revisions of an arcade game of this era, such as Galaxian having more difficult to dodge enemy fire on the earlier boards, which was scaled back to be more forgiving as production rolled on.  In the case of Dig Dug II there are two different game revisions that have completely different stage layouts.  The "old version" is widely considered to be extremely difficult early on and most players will come to a point where they simply always get overwhelmed.  The "new version" improved the island design and enemy placement, making for an over all more enjoyable to play game.  The NES port is based upon the "new version" chipset so that's what it was compared against for this column.

While not as nostalgic or popular as the original Dig Dug, the sequel is still a lot of fun and arguably this is a more accurate home conversion than the original game received.  Why Bandai thought it wise to bring over the sequel and not the original is still something I don't quite understand.  Sure, Dig Dug was a game that was three years older than Dig Dug II but it was way more popular both in Japan and abroad.  A lot of the Namco arcade game ports fall under the quick and easy localization criteria, usually requiring nothing more than a new title screen with revised copyright and licensing information.  Perhaps Bandai would have liked to release the original Dig Dug on the NES but thought the game seemed a little too bare bones with its sold black background, instead opting to publish the more colorful sequel.  While I wouldn't consider it an arcade or NES classic by any stretch, Dig Dug II is still a fun game and has a solid challenge that will keep you busy if you can get into it.  Surprisingly this one is a little uncommon so don't expect to see it in a standard NES collection or in a mixed box at a flea market.  I wouldn't make any extra attempt to pick up a copy of the game but if you already have it on the shelf or come across a copy in the open, it's definitely worth a play or two.
 

"InsaneDavid" also covers all types of video gaming at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi

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