Mr. Driller

Mr. Driller (ミスタードリラー?) is a series of video games developed by Namco. Mr. Driller puts the player in the role of a driller moving down through screens of blocks, having to keep his air supply from running out while avoiding being squashed by falling blocks. Games in this series have been released for PlayStation, Dreamcast, WonderSwan, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, DS, WiiWare, Xbox Live, Windows, and iOS in addition to the arcade versions. The main character of these games is Susumu Hori, the son of Taizou Hori, who was the star of the original Dig Dug game.

The project that would become Mr. Driller was originally intended to be a third game in the Dig Dug series, under the working title of Dig Dug 3. Hexagonal blocks were briefly considered, but this idea was abandoned when chain construction proved to be too complicated. Dig Dug 3 was initially developed unofficially by a few Namco staff; however, work on the game was suspended while Ridge Racer Type 4 was being completed. However, Namco executives were impressed with the game and decided to support it as an official project.