I remember when Mr. Driller came out in the U.S. in 2000. I had already moved on to the Dreamcast by then but for some reason I picked it up for the Playstation (possibly it was cheaper, or I just preferred the Playstation D-pad) and I played the heck out of that game. I loved everything about it from the cheery graphics to the upbeat soundtrack to the fact that it had a weird story tie in to Dig Dug. Mr. Driller was my jam for a quick arcade fix that summer and I was fully on board as a fan, excited to see what would happen next with the franchise.

Of course what happened next were a bunch of ports to various systems I didn't play and that didn't seem to move the series forward appreciably, many of which never made it to the U.S. I didn't get any of them, since reviews were generally tepid, but I would still pop my Mr. Driller disc into my PS2 and play it from time to time. It was by far my most-played game utilizing PS2 backwards compatibility.

Of course over time I played it less and less, and Mr. Driller sort of dropped off my radar, but then, in 2008, I heard about a little game called Mr. Driller Online, coming to YOUR Xbox 360 console. I was fully on board from the get go. Ryan didn't like the game, but while I respected his opinion, nothing was going to stop me from drilling back in. I got it as soon as it was available (staying up late for the store refresh even) and I tore into it. Despite the low-res graphics and the busted online functionality (in a game called Mr. Driller Online even!) I loved it. I was back in the land of blocks, getting those great cascade combos, finding air bubbles, and just having a fantastic time.

I would play that version of Mr. Driller off and on until the end of the Xbox 360 era, less and less as time went by, but it never left the hard drive of my 360.

Recently I was looking at the available downloads on my Xbox One, and I noticed that Mr. Driller Online was available in backwards compatibility. I brought the cursor over to the tile on the screen and put my finger over the A button, ready to grab it, when I had a realization.

I don't want to play any more Mr. Driller. I've played enough. I have my memories and I had my fun, but I'm done. Done with Mr. Driller. Even though I could snag the game for free and jump back in...I don't want to. I feel like the best case scenario is disappointment. Worst case, I would tarnish memories of a game that at one point was among my very favorite arcade-style games of all time.

16 years ago I played Mr. Driller for the first time and formed what I thought would be a lifelong bond. 8 years ago I relived the magic. Now, I'm done.

I'm not usually like this with games. I love revisiting old favorites and playing retro stuff, but something about Mr. Driller resonates within the context of a place and time (or two places and times, technically) and I don't want to go back.

If I'm lucky I have decades more of life ahead of me. I never want to stop playing video games, of course, and maybe in another 8 years there will be some new version of Mr. Driller on the Xbox Two and I will get the urge and dive back in. This kind of thing can be hard to predict. But for now, I'm done. Goodbye Mr. Driller. You're not a game that seemed fun at the time but in retrospect was not so good. I totally respect what you did. You're not a game that got old because you were never young. You were an arcade game (sequel to DIG DUG) with 2D graphics released in 1999. You were born retro. You're just a game I grew out of for reasons I can't articulate. Thank you for the fun times and the memories. I hope you never stop drilling. I just can't follow you anymore.

Fantastic post, although I never played Mr. Driller. Is it worth checking out for a newbie?

@darth_navster: I don't think Mr. Driller Online is necessarily the best version of the game. It lacks local multiplayer and while I think online multiplayer was fixed to some degree I can't imagine anyone is still playing. It would give you a pretty good basic version of the game but you might be better off with another version (like the Dreamcast version) which might have more features.

As for Mr. Driller in general, if you like the idea of a cheery block drilling game I don't see why it wouldn't be worth checking out. I had a lot of fun with it and as I said it's not like it became obsolete or anything. I might watch a couple videos of it to see if the gameplay looks appealing, since it's pretty simple to get the hang of and it's not like there's anything to be spoiled. But if it seems like your kind of game, I say go for it. I certainly don't regret the hours I sunk into it back in the day.

This is crazy, no wonder you've lost your love for this game having played the buggy 360 version. Even the Nintendo eShop 3DS version is better and includes stuff you won't have seen. I highly recommend the Dreamcast version, it looks and sounds amazing over VGA and controls awesomely with an official DC joystick for that arcade feel.

Nice writeup dude! Never played Mr. Driller before but you definitely made me want to check it out (also partially to validate my dreamcast purchase). There are definitely some games that I cherish for their memories but would never play again, some terrible games some games that I grew out of. I think it really cool that we can take positive memories away from them at the end of the day.