Mr. Driller Online is patched!

That's right, Mr. Driller Online is now patched! After the disastrous launch of the game - where playing an online game was absolutely impossible to do and could not have been more broken if it tried, has now been patched. And according to NeoGAFfer Jonnyram - online play now works without a hitch!

Now the hard part is finding someone to play with!

Source: Neogaf - Mr. Driller Online is patched!

Mr. Driller getting fixed this month!

Team Xbox have gotten in contact with Namco Bandai and have confirmed that their latest XBLA release Mr. Driller Online will be getting a free title update by the end of the month.

For those not in the know, Mr. Driller Online does not live up to its namesake - the online portion of the game is very, very broken. In fact, it's unplayable! The rest of the game is fine though - but it's good that Namco are going back and fixing this up, even if it may be too late. At least you might get those online achievements now!

Source: Team Xbox - "Mr Driller Online to Get Title Update This Month"

XBLA Activity for week of 4/14

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Ikaruga (-)
2 Battlezone (debut)
3 Brain Challenge (+1)
4 Rocky and Bullwinkle (debut)
5 DOOM (-2)
6 UNO (+3)
7 N+ (+1)
8 Worms (-1)
9 Bomberman LIVE (+1)
10 Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (v)

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

From the previous week (which I've admittedly been skipping the past few weeks, too busy unfortunately) we can see that Ikaruga is still on top for the second week in a row. Mr. Driller Online, which last week was at No. 2 last week, has suddenly dropped off the map and out of the top 10. Surprising since it stayed quite high in its second week.

Dissapointing debuts for Battlezone and - more surprisingly - Rocky & Bullwinkle, since it was meant to appeal to a wider demographic. Poor reviews aside, I think Zen Studios were expecting big things from Bullwinkle.

Brain Challenge continues to sell well - and unlike Bullwinkle appears to have found it's niche and has done well for itself.

Source: Major Nelson - LIVE Activity for week of 4/14

Review wrap-up: Ikaruga, Mr. Driller Online

A bit late on this one - I was hoping more info would come out about fixing Mr. Driller's Online mode. Ah well.

Mr. Driller Online

Xbox360 @ IGN.com by Ryan Geddes - 2.8 / 10
Team Xbox review by David Chapman - 8.0 / 10
Giant Bomb review by Ryan Davis - 2 / 5
Gamespot review by Don Francis - 2.5 / 10

Ikaruga

Xbox360 @ IGN.com by Erik Brudvig - 9.0 / 10
Team Xbox review by David Chapman - 9.0 / 10
1UP.com review by Ray Barnholt - A

Source: IGN, Gamespot, 1UP, Giant Bomb

Major Nelson Podcast - Interview with Sierra Online's Ross Erickson

After making the rounds on the Three Red Lights Podcast, Sierra Online's Ross Erickson has popped up on the Major Nelson Podcast, discussing their recent and upcoming XBLA games!

On Lost Cities:

"Possibly 3 weeks out [before release, maybe]"

On Assault Heroes 2:

"Bigger Badder, Better, Bolder. A lot more enemies, lot of weapons. [...] Playing with the camera for different opportunities, hijacking weapons.."

On Aces of the Galaxy:

"Pure Adrenalin Space Combat, a cross between Starfox 64 meets the original Warhawk on PSOne."

On upcoming games:

"We have roughly a dozen titles in production for the XBLA right now, we're very committed to the platform."

On the quality of games:

MN: "Recently there has been some Buzz on the internet with the quality of games on the XBLA. That's got to hit you right below the belt!"

RE: "Well it kind of does in two ways, number one I'm responsible for identifying and fighting for some of these games to come to the XBLA and that covers a wide variety of game experiences and types for different kinds of users, and you're also talking about games I'm publishing right now.

I can appreciate when people - particularly hardcore gamers who have their favorites talk about their favorite game. I think the situation is that gamers are very wide and diverse these days. I like Astropop but I don't think many people pay attention to it much.

Some categories on XBLA on the original vision was diversity and something fun for everyone. I can't get my wife to pay Assault Heroes for instance, and I like N+ and Commanders but they're very different kinds of games."

On bringing classics to the service:

"There is a lot of buzz around Bionic Commando and the fans of that, and we're looking at some of our old franchises and not just figuring out how to quickly put a coat of paint on it, but how to reinvent the franchise without turning it into another franchise.

A lot of our franchises at Sierra have been known as retail 50-60 dollar games and here we are with Sierra Online and seeing how we can bring IP we own to the online space, so it's a challenge but a lot of fun too!"

There is also a great discussion about just how much Erickson loves Lode Runner, and his difficult time in trying to find just who owns the rights to the franchise. A great interview.

Download the podcast here or join the RSS feed.

Namco: 'Yeah, Mr. Driller Online is pretty broken! We're on it...'

Namco's recently released Mr. Driller Online has had a LOT of problems - particularly, the 'Online' mode is a completely unplayable mess, as seen in this lovely video provided by Xbox 360 Fanboy. People are mad about it - some people even got a refund, and the game has been given a bevy of crap scores.

Since then, Namco has released a response to the public, which can be read here in Japanese. Basically, it says the following:

- We are aware that there are some problems in Mr. Driller Online's online play.
- We are currently investigating the issue.
- We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
- We will post an update at a later time.

Let's hope they do something fast, and slap the back of the developers collective heads for this tremendous screw up. I wonder if this'll get picked up by Major Nelson & co?

Source: Your friend and mine, rmk106!

Mr. Driller Online is up!

Developer: NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
Publisher: NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
Genre: Xbox LIVE Arcade (Uhh...)
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Arcade Regions

Click here for images of Mr. Driler Online

Click here for the official Xbox.com webpage

Mr. Driller Online is your game of the week!

Joining the fabulous lineup of puzzle games available on Xbox 360, “MR. DRILLER Online” comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Players take on the role of a driller moving through levels of colorful blocks, avoiding the threat of being crushed by falling blocks, all while keeping their air supply from running out.

“MR. DRILLER Online” features single player modes including Standard Driller and Quest Driller, as well as online multiplayer support for up to four players on Xbox LIVE. In online multiplayer mode, players can participate in a split screen Solo Battle, where the best score wins, or in Tag Battle, where friends team up in pairs to beat the game.

Mr. Driller certainly is a weird one - not for the game itself, but the fact that.. well, NOBODY has played it! Despite being a fairly well known puzzle game to Namco fans, there has been absolutely no news about the game at all. The only 'preview' information can be seen here at IGN, which is little more than a list of features (though admittedly, much like the beginning of this post), outside of that, nobody has played the game. It's not even up on Microsoft's Partnernet service for developers.

Considering Namco's previous effort of Pac-Man CE was so well received by Gamers and Game Press alike, it's a little strange to do the same here. Though Pac-Man CE was a secret addition to XBLA when originally announced, the game was a collaboration between Namco and Microsoft. Mr. Driller Online appears to strictly be a Namco idea, and of the very few screen shots available it's looking a little half-arsed - particularly the sprites of your players.

We'll know in less than 24 hours, I guess. But the Xbox Live Arcade service should have gotten over this a long time ago.

Check out images of the game here.

Check out the Xbox.com page here.

Source: Major Nelson

Whoops again! Another release date pops up! Mr. Driller next week?

Sad_Panda over on NeoGAF has spotted another release date leak over at the Mr. Driller Online webpage. It looks like - despite not being announced until a few weeks ago, it may end up getting released... next week!

Source: Mr. Driller Online @ Xbox.com Japan

Mr. Driller Online - direct screens, trailer and feature list!

After the Famitsu announcement a day or so ago, the first direct feed screens and first details have emerged from Watch-impress.

Included in the details are the different modes available:

Single Player
- Standard Driller: The regular single player mode.
- Quest Driller: Every 100 metres drilled will add a new "Quest" for the player to finish, which must be completed by the next 100m drop.
Multiplayer modes
- Solo Battle: 4 players compete for the highest score.
- Tag Battle: A 2 Vs. 2 mode where players play cooperatively against another team. This mode is brand new to Mr. Driller games.

The first trailer has also made it online



Currently the game looks.. okay. It's Mr. Driller, no doubt about that, but the graphics themselves are VERY blurry from being made large through a softening filter - not sharp at all, looks quite poor. Hell I'd even go for the pixelated look, but surely Namco have these very simple characters somewhere in a Flash or Photoshop file somewhere - there really isn't an excuse for it.

You can see all the new images here. Also, strangely, the Xbox.com Japanese page has also popped up at the same time! You can check that out here with more images.

Source: Mr. Driller Online on Watch Impress Japan

Famitsu: Mr. Driller Online made official!

It's been known for a while - through the OFLC and USK - that Mr. Driller Online will be making its way to the Xbox Live Arcade. This week's Famitsu issue has the very first details for the game!


Two images have been released - both showing new online multiplayer modes for the game. The first image shows a 4 player VS. Mode against other players - much like the previous games but now online - as well as a 2v2 Cooperative VS match.

We should hopefully seem more soon - apparently this game is due for "Spring" this year.

Source: Famitsu, Jonnyram on NeoGAF