Dig Dug II - Trouble in Paradise

Dig Dug II, subtitled Trouble in Paradise, is an action-puzzle arcade game and a direct sequel to the 1982 classic Dig Dug, released by Namco in 1985 . The game represents a significant departure from its predecessor: instead of the side-view underground digging, players now navigate a top-down view of an island maze . The hero, Taizo Hori, is armed with two weapons: his signature air pump, which inflates enemies until they burst, and a new jackhammer drill . The drill is the game's central new mechanic; it can be used at specific fault lines to crack the earth. If a section of the island is completely severed, it sinks into the ocean, taking any enemies on it with it . The goal of each level is to eliminate all Pookas and Fygars, and the game features up to 32 distinct stages in its original arcade iteration . It supports up to two players who alternate turns .

Arcade

Developed and published by Namco, Dig Dug II was released in Japanese arcades in March 1985 . It runs on the Namco Super Pac-Man arcade hardware, with a video system similar to that used in Mappy and The Tower of Druaga . The hardware utilizes two Motorola M6809 CPUs and a Namco WSG chip for sound, displaying vertical raster graphics at a 224 x 288 resolution . The game features a slightly different subtitle for its North American NES port, titled "Trouble in Paradise," and was also released for the Famicom and Famicom Disk System . Despite its innovative shift in gameplay and its status as a true sequel, Dig Dug II was notably less popular than its predecessor and is often considered a more obscure entry in the series . The rights to the game are currently held by Bandai Namco Entertainment .