Sometimes my handhelds get neglected. It’s not an intentional thing, and it says nothing about the caliber of the games on the platforms, it’s just that it’s hard for me to pass up a bigger more powerful game on a nice big television screen. But get sick and stuck in bed and your handhelds go right back to being your best friend. That was how I finally got around to playing SteamWorld Dig.
When I began one of my early jobs out of high school Motherload was the game to play instead of actually working. SteamWorld Dig is very close spiritually although obviously it’s significantly more polished.
You play a strapping young robot named Rusty who finds himself taking up residence in Tumbleton, a dried up mining town that’s 3 marks on the population sign from being a full blown ghost town. Rusty headed out for Tumbleton after receiving the deed to the main mine in the city from his old uncle. Within the first five minutes or so you find your uncle’s lifeless body in the mines and so it becomes up to you to restore Tumbleton to its former economic glory.
Mining is a simple affair. Simply pressing and holding the circle button will make Rusty begin his great dig. You’ll work your way down through the mines, stopping to collect different minerals along the way. The deeper you go the more valuable minerals will become. Once your bag is full you’ll have to ascend back up into town to offload your goods and begin a run again. Climbing back up is done primarily via Rusty’s wall jump but you can also purchase ladders and find other upgrades that will make your trips easier/faster.
And there are plenty of upgrades to find, some are purchased from the folks of Tumbleton while other, more mysterious powers are found in the depths of the mines. Upgrades range from the simple, like making your pickaxe cut through stone faster, to entirely new items like Dynamite and Teleporters to return you back to Tumbleton with ease. Get stuck down in a pit that you can’t wall jump up? Hope you brought a teleporter or some ladders. Finding these items and abilities will frequently allow you to access new areas or at the very least allow you to navigate the mines more easily and the system lends a nice Metroid-ish feel to the game.
As you progress deeper into the game’s world Rusty will begin to encounter more and more unfriendly creatures and devices, these range from dynamite lobbing mutants to laser firing auto turrets. Combat is a fairly simple affair, opponents can be bashed with your pickaxe but clever players will also find opportunities to eliminate enemies by digging the ground out from under them etc.
The game was originally released on the 3DS but eventually found its way to Sony platforms as well as Steam. I played the game on Vita and also received a crossover download for my PS4. The game looks great on a big screen but ultimately the way it plays felt much better on a handheld. You can usually do a single run down into your mine for resources in just ten minutes or so, so I found it great to pull out on a whim whenever I had a spare few minutes.
SteamWorld Dig hooks into an OCD part of my brain that’s often better kept dormant and I had a blast playing it. As if an act of mercy in regards to my addiction, the game isn’t particularly long, I completed the primary quest line in about 5 hours but I didn’t purchase all the upgrades available to me, I imagine that probably would have extended my play time by another hour or two. Some might cry foul with a 5 hour runtime being too short for the game’s $9.99 asking price. I definitely wouldn’t have minded if the game had maybe another world to plow through but I also don’t feel like the experience I got was short enough to merit reducing the score.
If you check out and dig (heh) Motherload then I’d definitely recommend Steamworld Dig, it’s similar in theory with a lot more polish and more importantly it’s perfect for portable gaming. Well then off you go, to avenge your dead uncle or whatever..
