SteamWorld Dig

There are a lot of hidden gems waiting to be unearthed in the Nintendo eShop. Steamworld Dig is one of those gems, it launched first on the 3DS and gain popularity enough to make it to PC, PS4, Vita, Xbone and Wii U.

The depths of the mines in the wild west isn't a place for the faint-of-heart. Wielding his dead uncle's shitty axe and the power of steam, a sentient robot makes his way through the pitch-black mines, searching for gold, gems and upgrades. (Makes me think how Robots would reproduce). 

The gameplay is heavily inspired by Dig Dug, but with a Metroid level design twist. Unlike Dig Dug the mines in the game goes deep with many different paths. The similarities to Metroid come from acquiring certain upgrades that grants access to deeper parts of the mine; some upgrades give you more health, higher jump, bigger wallet and a bigger lantern to light your way.

The game is all about digging and gathering gold and gems, then returning to the surface to sell them and upgrade your getup, and repeat. You can also find paths that lead you to key upgrades as well as optional ones. There are some limiting factors that force intervals to your exploration; such as the lantern; if you go on long enough without refueling you'll end up moving blind as a bat. Another is the steam; if you run out your drill will stop working. These limitations gives a good change of pace but nothing more.

With enough light and fuel you can go deep, but if you die you'll lose 50% of the gold and gems you gathered, but still if you return to where you died you'll find your money bag. 

Another challenging factor in the gameplay is that you can always dig yourself into an inescapable hole, so you must always keep in mind that the path you dig can be claimable. The enemy roster is always something integral to my experience. While some enemies can be fun at first most are unfortunately boring, and some enemies even feel like a source of annoyance rather than challenge.

Some parts in the game--thankfully the short parts--are all about platforming, while it works it feels a tad tedious; I usually just want it to end just get back to digging.

The length of the game is just right, for what it had offer; every time I felt bored I found a new upgrade, or got to new part. It will probably take less than 5 hours for the first play-through.

In closing, I really dug my time with the game, I've played it from start to finish on a plane, so I can recommend it to anyone looking for that short 'n sweet kind of experience.