Namco Bandai's latest attempt to milk an arcade franchise for Xbox Live Arcade just turned sour. Mr. Driller Online is a halfway decent addition to the quirky arcade digging series, as it carries the same bouncy presentation and addictive gameplay as previous Drillers. However, the online portion is so broken that you might think something's wrong with your system.

In Driller, you select from a family of diggers and then work your way through a series of caverns throughout the world. These caverns vary in depth, ranging from a simple one hundred meters (easily beaten in a matter of minutes) to one thousand meters and beyond. Part of the challenge comes from picking up air capsules. It's hard to breathe that deep underground, so you have to snag them to keep your air supply from running out. The deeper you dig, the more unstable the surroundings become. Foundations shake loose very quickly, threatening to crush you flat unless you're smart enough to get out of the way.

For the most part, the gameplay remains surprisingly engaging. Having to hustle your way over to star blocks (for bonus points) and air capsules becomes a challenge as you get deeper and deeper in each level. Your best bet is to keep moving. Stand still too long and you'll find yourself buried.

With quality online play, Mr. Driller could have been something special.

The presentation is also lots of fun. Although the music isn't as good as the songs offered in the Dreamcast Mr. Driller, it's still fun to listen to. The graphics look very nice, with cute little characters maneuvering through each stage, exploding blocks and colorful presentation screens.

So, the presentation is on the mark and gameplay's not bad. Where does Mr. Driller Online go horribly wrong? Well, it says it right there in the title. Connecting with Xbox Live players for a game of versus sounds very tempting, but it never works.

Let's take our recent online round with the game as an example. We find other users to play against. We offer them a quick match, they accept. We get our diggers at the starting line. We dig. Nothing. The player just sits there at the main level, not even making an impact. We dig some more, and still nothing. He sits there. It's as if his drill is telling him, "Nah, not today." At one point, the game froze up entirely, and forcing us to reset the system altogether. Even the leader boards don't work that well. We're supposed to spend 800 points on an online XBLA experience that makes us think our Xbox 360 hardware is messing up? That just doesn't sound acceptable to us.

If you purchase Mr. Driller Online for the single player experience, you'll have a decent time. The multiple quests, fun presentation and engaging gameplay will leave you digging for more. If you wish to play online, however, your best bet is to wait and see if Namco Bandai release a patch to fix these massive problems. Boasting a game as "Online" in the title and then not having the feature available is a massive case of false advertisement, and one that needs to be repaired pronto. Without it, it's overpriced and broken -- not exactly the example you want to have on Xbox Live Arcade.

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Mr. Driller Online Game Guide

Our Final ScoreBad

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