Douglas Chase, the hero of Tasty Poison's arcade puzzle game Dig!, has it rough. He works as an archaeologist for a failing museum, and in order to save his job, appease his boss and rescue the museum, he has to dig up new and exciting artefacts, pronto. And he has to do all this while mummies, tentacles and moles chase him, which never makes things easy. Oh, and toilet seats count as priceless artefacts, by the way. Have fun!
Dig! will remind a lot of old school gamers of Qix. The basic goal is to fence off areas of the screen by drawing lines. Or in this case, digging them. Tap the perimeter of the field to move Douglas to that area, then drag your finger across the screen to mark out a path. As soon as you touch two edges, that part of the ground drops down, revealing any shiny things that were buried beneath. Get 75% of the field dug out and you'll move deeper where the real treasures are buried!
Working with power-ups and avoiding enemies are the other major parts of Dig's gameplay. Nigel the mummy likes to run along the lines you draw at a frightening speed, while other foes wander around the sides or hide beneath the dirt waiting to attack. You can use scarecrows for a quick diversion, but donning hats to gain character perks is the real way to go.
Dig! is deceptively entertaining. It starts out really simple, possibly even a bit too simple, and gradually introduces more complex gameplay as you dig deeper. There's even a mildly tycoon-style museum section to manage once you get a few artefacts stocked away. The more time you spend with Dig! the better it gets. Now, pretend I said a clever pun about digging deeper into the gameplay and go check the game out!
NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on the iPad 3. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.
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