Dig Dug

Dig Dug is a game about killing monsters with an air pump, and it is built on a mechanic nothing else used: the level is entirely destructible, and the way you dig it is the way you win it.

You dig tunnels through a field of earth that starts solid, and every metre you carve is a permanent change to the level. Pookas (the red round ones with goggles) and Fygars (the green fire-breathing dragons) start buried inside it and follow you through your own tunnels once they wake up. The pump is your only weapon: a single hit stuns an enemy, and pumping three or four times inflates it until it pops. The clever part is the geometry - you can pump through a thin wall of earth, so an enemy on the other side is still in range, and the last enemy in a round will try to escape by tunnelling to the surface, which is the moment it is most vulnerable. Rocks embedded in the field fall when you dig underneath them, and crushing a monster with one is worth far more than a pump kill.

• ▸Every tunnel you dig is permanent - the level is the strategy
• ▸Inflate enemies with the pump until they pop
• ▸Rocks fall when you dig beneath them, crushing monsters
• ▸Fygars breathe fire only when they are facing you