Overview
Dig Dug II is a Namco action/puzzle Arcade game and the sequel to their hit Dig Dug. It shifts the gameplay from a Boulder Dash style digging game to a QIX style game where the hero, Taizo Hori, is cutting off sections of an island to drop his old enemies Pooka and Fygar into the ocean.
It followed its predecessor to the Arcades initially, and then saw ports to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Its US release received a subtitle: Trouble in Paradise (the islands of the game were depicted as tropical islands in its promotional art). It was also ported to the FDS via the Disk Writer service. It eventually saw a digital release on the Wii Shop's Virtual Console Arcade and the NES version later came to the Wii U Virtual Console..
Gameplay
Unlike the original where the player had to dig holes underground to defeat enemies, Dig Dug II is played from a top-down perspective on an island where there is no digging underground at all. There are 32 distinct levels in the arcade version and 72 in the NES and Famicom Disk System ports. The player must kill all enemies on the island in order to advance to the next level. To do this, Taizo still has his air pump from the original, which is used to pump up enemies till they explode. In addition to the pump Taizo also has a new weapon, a drill. The drill is used on holes in the ground to cause part of the island to crumble and fall in the water, this causes enemies that are on the part of the island that crumbled to fall into the water killing them.
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