Dig Dug (NES)

Game Profile

The objective in DIG DUG is simple: eliminate all underground-dwelling monsters by either inflating them until they pop or by dropping rocks on them! Faced with two kinds of enemy, Pookas - red round monsters with yellow goggles, and Fygars – green dragons who breathe deadly fire, Dig Dug must strategically dig tunnels to thwart his foes and use his air harpoon and surrounding rocks to clear each stage.

With bonus points disguised as vegetables and the opportunity to receive high points for luring multiple enemies and crushing them with a single rock, DIG DUG is an intense and tactical game.

Game Review

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Review

USA Tue, 10 Jun 2008 by Marcel Van Duyn

Pac-Man wasn't the only popular arcade game Namco made. Aside from Galaga, Mappy, and others, there was also Dig Dug. In Dig Dug, your objective is to dig through the earth's soil and eliminate the monsters lurking within it. You can move through the soil..

Pac-Man wasn't the only popular arcade game Namco made. Aside from Galaga, Mappy, and others, there was also Dig Dug.In Dig Dug, your objective is to dig through the earth's soil and eliminate the monsters lurking within it. You can move through the soil..

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User Comments

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1. Roo United Kingdom 09 Jun 2008, 13:55 GMT

Minted. Dig Dug is a minor classic: get it in!

koresh1959

2. koresh1959 United Kingdom 09 Jun 2008, 13:59 GMT

Reminds me of those sand-digging sections in Super Mario Bros. 2... I hated them! But this looks fairly interesting.

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3. FalloutBR Brazil 09 Jun 2008, 14:00 GMT

Looks very interesting... I'll wait a review before buying it though, I just got Toki Tori, and that really got me busy (and low on money :p)

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4. Olimar_91 United States 09 Jun 2008, 14:43 GMT

I can't help but think of Mega64 when I watch the footage from this game XP

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5. Adamant Norway 09 Jun 2008, 14:46 GMT

3 stars? Seriously? This is one of my favorite games of all time. A must download.

" Aside from Galaga, Mappy, and others, there was also Dig Dug."

Was Mappy really that popular? I mean, I love the game, but it's not something you hear about a whole lot.

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6. Drake Netherlands 09 Jun 2008, 15:10 GMT

I would give it higher, but really, there's not much to the game these days. It's the same reason we gave Pac-Man and other similar games 3 stars.

Mappy has a cult following, I'm pretty sure.

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7. Jogurt the Yogurt Canada 09 Jun 2008, 15:41 GMT

I love Dig Dug, and I agree with the 3. Good score, solid game.

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8. Atlantis1982 United States 09 Jun 2008, 15:58 GMT

And was just reading about this being rated in the forums, and POOF like those critters, it just appears today on the VC.

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9. stinssd United States 09 Jun 2008, 16:20 GMT

I used to play this on my Commodore 64. It's a fun game, but 600 points? Hmmm.

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10. angel m. rivera collazo Puerto Rico 09 Jun 2008, 17:49 GMT

this is arcade classic,but,NES version is a little subpar,4 stars.

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11. STEADY MOBBIN 22 United States 09 Jun 2008, 17:58 GMT

What do you mean it was never released here? Im confused. There were a ton of ports to lesser systems, but a full arcade port was also released for Xbox Live about a year ago.

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12. Angelic Lapras King United Kingdom 09 Jun 2008, 18:18 GMT

Guess we Europeans won't see it for awhile....

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13. Kevin United States 09 Jun 2008, 18:42 GMT

Now we need mappy. I know its not as big as the other namco classics but I love it.

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14. Adamant Norway 09 Jun 2008, 21:16 GMT

@STEADY MOBBIN 22: The Famicom/NES port was never released outside Japan, for some bizarre reason. That's the one we got on the VC.

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15. Tides of Chaos United States 09 Jun 2008, 21:26 GMT

This looks like a faithful arcade port, but I'd recommend a namco collection over $6 for this.

kevenz

16. kevenz Canada 09 Jun 2008, 22:00 GMT

this game is great but repetitive.... similar to pacman, mappy and other early 80 games arcade games.

I hope Dig Dug 2 come out eventually, it is much better imo. You can destroy a whole island! I have both games on on the same nes cart :p

Alpo

17. Alpo United States 10 Jun 2008, 00:05 GMT

This game is so repetitive and boring, it is not worth it to download. The VC needs Star Wars: Shadows of the Empirer, and Turok 2 for download

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18. Csheroe United States 10 Jun 2008, 01:44 GMT

@alpo
sorry dude but this game's a classic and star wars..really? Turok 2 will never come..But it would be cool if it did.

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19. Jolted85 United States 10 Jun 2008, 03:04 GMT

Played the arcade game a long time ago, it's pretty fun, but I wouldn't give it no more than 3 stars though.

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20. Draygone United States 10 Jun 2008, 06:26 GMT

Funny, I thought we actually got the game on NES. I know we had it on Atari. That's the version I played, anyway. Was one of my favorite games. I kinda like how the Atari version looks better, though. Blue sky. This one has too much black.

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21. BB Sting United States 10 Jun 2008, 07:12 GMT

I hate it when a game is ported from the arcade to the NES, and then ported again from the NES to the Virtual Console. Mabe Nintendo will come up with some sort of Virtual Arcade so we can play these games as they were originally created, right down to the cigarette burns on the A button, Imao

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22. STEADY MOBBIN 22 United States 10 Jun 2008, 14:14 GMT

So Dig Dug is just as good as Metroid. FAIL.

re-rate Metroid please.

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23. Adamant Norway 10 Jun 2008, 19:45 GMT

Dig Dug being as good as Metroid sounds about right, yeah.

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24. Drake Netherlands 10 Jun 2008, 22:22 GMT

Yeah, Metroid should get 2 stars instead :p

Metroid really hasn't aged well if you ask me, every single sequel (Metroid II included) is better. It's really repetitive (Same rooms over and over), most enemies are annoying, you always start the game with almost no health, there's no map (Which is made even worse by the repetitive rooms), it's slow, etc.

Now to run before the Metroid fanboys come after me!

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25. Tweek Canada 11 Jun 2008, 01:11 GMT

Meh...this game was...Okay, but for 500 wii points? No. I played this game on an emulator and it held my attention for about 5 minutes.

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26. Terranigma United Kingdom 14 Jun 2008, 10:12 GMT

Even though it technically is an Import, there are so many versions of the game available to western audiences so it seems a bit of a shady move to release this as an import title by Nintendo. I hope it won't happen again unless there isn't the extra charge

poggydude

27. poggydude United States 15 Jun 2008, 16:49 GMT

the game is fun but I'd get namco muesem which is probably really cheap right now and includes an amazing number of classics

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28. Clayfrd United States 16 Jun 2008, 04:50 GMT

@koresh1959-
Ha! I hated those too! I can assure you that Dig Dug is much more fun. I have it on Game Boy Advance.

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29. Tony United States 16 Jun 2008, 18:21 GMT

I paid $9.00 for the GBA Namco arcade. It has Pole position. Ms. Pacman, Galaga and Galaxian. I can't see paying 600 points for this

Good game not a good value

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30. pApEr y0sh! United States 22 Jun 2008, 19:38 GMT

isnt this on namco museum? why would someone pay 6$ for this when you can get it with like 5 other games for the same price

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31. Tweek Canada 22 Jun 2008, 22:29 GMT

Well, Dig Dug is fun, but 600 Wii points? Import or not, i think i'll give this one a miss.

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32. BleachFan888 United States 23 Jun 2008, 20:52 GMT

I already have this game on several other consoles, so it's pointless for me to buy it.

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33. Ricardo91 United States 03 Jul 2008, 20:27 GMT

I have this game on 2 NM collections. There's no way i'm wasting an extra 100 points on this. Awesome game though, but the sequel sucked.

Mappy's pretty good too.

Edit: actually, the sequel was alright. It just got crazy hard by level 25.

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34. Adamant Norway 05 Jul 2008, 20:11 GMT

^Yes, yes, it is. Why isn't Mappy on the VC yet?

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35. Tabbyluigi United States 09 Aug 2008, 16:39 GMT

Okay, but not exactly great. This game is not quite as addictable as Pac-Man or Mario, but it is decent, but this is a bit expensive for it.

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36. LordJamak United States 09 Aug 2008, 23:31 GMT

Fun game. This was only a Japanese NES game? Hmmm I must remember it from arcade and other places. Still very fun though. Are we gonna see NES's Dig Dug II on VC?

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37. Beau Skunk United States 12 Aug 2008, 02:09 GMT

I recall, the NES version of Mappy was also onley released in Japan. (Another classic Namco arcade game.) Always loved Dig Dug, but it doesn't seem as replayable, or as addictive to me as DK or Pac Man. Though the concept of Dig Dug of digging your own pathways is rather innovative for it's day.
Dig Dug 2 (NES) was pretty addictive, and good so I hope that comes to VC to someday. (Oddly the sequal NES version was released outside of Japan.)

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38. angel m. rivera collazo Puerto Rico 29 Aug 2008, 14:08 GMT

bb sting,I am with you,Virtual Arcade! every arcade emulation deserves 5 stars! nes digdug...3 stars. I have about 3 namco museums for different consoles.

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39. slangman United Kingdom 29 Aug 2008, 16:13 GMT

Unless the virtual console version can save high scores. I see this as a complete waste of time since you can get this on a Namco collection disc on different formats (this was on gamecube right?)

@Drake i disagree i think the original Metroid is better then Metroid II though the sequels are far Superior.

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40. SRPirate United States 08 Sep 2008, 06:18 GMT

this game is a lot of fun to play at times but sometimes its really boring

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41. Supermarioman United States 18 Sep 2008, 22:11 GMT

OK I guess, gets boring after about 3 hours....

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42. Kurachi Netherlands 18 Oct 2008, 11:18 GMT

and again have to say it: it was on a xx in 1, i didnt really liked it that much, but i did play it
with this much games from back then, i can actually change my wii into an "old game basis" or something
its weird, this game has never been released outside japan, it says... but i did play it years ago :S
oh well, i did have fun with it :)

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43. Ricardo91 United States 11 Jan 2009, 18:41 GMT

@Adamant. Good question. Since I have the original Mappy in 3 different forms, I wouldn't care if it didn't appear on the VC. I would, however, LOVE to see Mappy Land and Mappy Kids appear as imports sometime!

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44. StarFox United States 10 Mar 2009, 22:25 GMT

Arcade games are best left in the arcades. However, I heard that there's a 3rd-party controller out there known as the Shaft, which is designed to make it so that arcade games like this, Space Invaders, etc can be played as if they were in arcades.

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45. Bass X0 United Kingdom 11 Mar 2009, 11:07 GMT

Arcade games are best left in the arcades.

I completely disagree. There are many classic arcade games that became classic console games too. Besides, think of how hard it is to find a particular arcade machine now.

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46. KnucklesSonic8 Canada 22 Mar 2009, 02:37 GMT

I have this on Namco Museum Remix and I love it. :)
The thing is, when you consider that I got NMR used for $10 and it contains like 10 classic titles plus like 6 remade titles all the while Dig Dug is on the VC for 600... It doesn't take a genius to see what the better value is.

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47. cheeseman United States 10 Jun 2009, 22:51 GMT

@KnucklesSonic8
I'll tell you what the best value is, to play the NES version of Dig Dug for free at http://www.1980-games.com/us/old-games/nintendo/d/Dig_Dug/game.php :)

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