Dig Dug Hands-On

Few classic arcade games featured the kind of addictive gameplay and quirky charm that Namco's Dig Dug did. Now, Dig Dug is coming to your mobile phone. On the CTIA show floor we got the chance to play some of this new version of Dig Dug, and we came away pretty pleased with the experience.

The classic method of Dig Dug gameplay has gone pretty much untouched in this version. You'll still control the game's titular hero by moving him around dirt-filled environments and inflating various enemies with a pumplike mechanism. To control Dig Dug, you'll use the arrow keys to move him up, down and around, and the zero key to activate his weapon. The performance of the game seemed to hold up fine, as it kept a steady frame rate and looked basically like an arcade-perfect port. However, the controls were a little stiff in certain areas. Namely, the actual movement controls weren't quite as responsive as we might have liked. To be fair, it did get better as we played more of it and got a better feel for the controls, but it still seemed a bit off in terms of responsiveness.

Regardless of the minimal control issues, Dig Dug seemed to be exactly what one would expect from a mobile port of the classic arcade game. Even little touches, like how the music only plays when you move the character around, seemed to be present in this version. We'll be sure to bring you more on Dig Dug's mobile adventure as its release draws near.