It's a neat inversion of Metroid's most-imitated mechanic where most games present you with new ways to move forward, SteamWorld Dig's upgrades often serve to get you safely back where you started. For instance: you might chase some particularly valuable ore to the bottom of an unusually deep chasm with no apparent way to get back up, but if you survive long enough, you'll discover something like the double-jump boots, enabling your escape. You’ll carve your own path through the mine, though at certain predetermined points you'll discover special gear that allows you to overcome obstacles with an expansive, Samus Aran-esque skillset. While SteamWorld Dig's randomly generated, fully destructible environments and subterranean setting draw natural comparisons to Spelunky and Terraria, it plays more like a cross between Dig Dug and Super Metroid.
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The surface hub is a bit of a letdown, with characters that are fun to look at but ultimately forgettable, but perhaps this is for the best: they serve their purpose and little more, ensuring you're free to focus on the mine. It’s further enhanced by some exceptionally clever audio design, with the steady clinking of your pickaxe and the deep thrumming of the western-influenced musical score rendering the progression of outside time meaningless. Though the core action lasts only a few minutes at a time before our character, a cutely animated robot prospector named Rusty, has to retreat to the surface hub to recharge his solar-powered light source, it's easy to get lost in an endless cycle of "just one more run." Trading jewels and ore for cash to buy upgraded equipment, discovering new shortcuts through the mine, and inching your way closer to the bottom all comes together in a hypnotic sort of rhythm. An additional benefit of remote play: it brings the PS4’s wider field of view to the Vita’s small screen. One unfortunate omission from the Cross-Buy enabled PSN release is Cross-Save functionality, but the PS4’s built-in remote play functionality makes up for this a little. The Vita port is more or less the same as the 3DS original, save for some minor interface adjustments and obvious increase in resolution.
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The PlayStation 4 and PC versions, in addition to their crisper textures, improved animation, and newly added bloom lighting, sport a slightly wider field of view, making it easier to spot potential dangers in the mine below. That hook has remained across every platform I’ve played it on since. Many times now I've picked it up with the intention of playing for just a few minutes before bed, only to find sunlight creeping across the face of my 3DS as the battery starts to give out. But its premise is so incredibly simple – dig through an abandoned mine for buried treasures to sell on the surface, buy upgrades, then repeat – that it refuses to let go, no matter how many times I've failed. and moments where I lost almost everything. SteamWorld Dig has been a constant ride of ups and downs for me: moments of thrilling elation, where small risks lead to rich rewards. But now I've got to get that diamond back. Then everything goes white, and I'm back up on the surface with fewer dollars to my name than I began with. Just when I think I'm going to make it, I hear the familiar hiss of a short fuse on the end of a long, red stick, and I remember the creatures can use explosives. I pull out a rusty pickaxe, rushing headlong at the creature. Now, as I try to think of a way back out, I hear a guttural moan in the cavern ahead of me. The rough landing nearly ends me, but I’m alive, and I have my prize.