Mr. Driller: Drill Land

Plot

A new theme park known as Drill Land is being opened and Susumu and his friends are invited for the opening ceremony. However, they don't know that the owner of the theme park is actually Dr. Manhole, the mad scientist. Together with the Ankoku Drillers, he is trying to stop Susumu and his friends again, so he can destroy the earth with gigantic drillers.

Gameplay

Like other games in the Mr. Driller series, Mr. Driller: Drill Land is an action puzzle game. The objective of the game is to drill through square blocks in order to reach the bottom of a stage. Blocks have different colors: drilling a block of a certain color will also break all adjacent blocks with the same color. This can cause blocks above to fall down and crush the driller. Combined with slowly decreasing oxygen, this calls for strategic actions.

At the end of completing one level of each world, the player will have to chase the Destruction Drill operated by Dr. Manhole.

Modes

This Mr. Driller game is slightly different from other games in the series because it consists of 5 different drilling games. These games are being presented as rides in a theme park, called Drill Land. Most of these rides are a pun on real properties.

Drill Land World Tour

The classic Mr. Driller mode. Players need to drill their way to the end while avoiding collapsing blocks and maintaining oxygen. Brown blocks are harder to destroy and cause the player to lose some oxygen. Every 100m section is themed after a different country, thus this 'ride' resembles It's a small world. This is the only mode which allows players to choose their own character.

The Hole of Druaga

A Puzzle RPG mode. The player starts with 100Hp and drilling a block costs 1Hp. Players need to search for a key to open a door in order to progress. A map is available to track whereabouts of items and the player. Throughout the game crystals (called Dristones) can be found in order to help the player. This mode is themed after a medieval castle, like the Namco game Tower of Druaga and played by Anna Hottenmeyer, dressed as a knight.

Horror Night House

This mode combines Mr. Driller with ghost hunting. Players need to collect Holy water and inject this into stones with ghosts. Once injected, these ghosts will change to crystals when the stones are broken. In order to progress to the next level (floor), sufficient crystals need to be collected, as indicated in the lower corner of the screen. This mode is themed after a haunted mansion and is being played by Ataru Hori, dressed as a Vampire.

Drindy Adventure

A more classic mode. Themed to Indiana Jones, players descend through the caverns while collecting golden statues and escaping from traps like rolling boulders and spikes. This mode is played with Taizo Hori, dressed as Indiana Jones.

Star Driller

This mode takes place in a space setting. ? blocks contain special effects that may either help or hurt the player. Star blocks disappear after a few seconds, causing other blocks to potentially fall down and crush the player. This mode is played with Susumu Hori, dressed as an astronaut. This mode's name is a pun on Star Trigon.

GBA Link-up

The game can be connected with Mr Driller A, released for the Game Boy Advance. Using a GBA-GCN cable, points can be transferred from the GBA game to the GCN game, to be used in the shop of said version. Apart from transferring points, it is also possible to transfer the player's 'Pacteria card' information to Mr Driller: Drill Land. The Pacteria featured on their card will then join the parade in the GameCube version.

Reception

On release, Famitsu magazine scored the game a 30 out of 40.