I was so psyched when Marc told me this was coming out on Xbox Live! Arcade. I’m a HUGE fan of Mr. Driller 2 coin-op version, and I was hoping this would be an Xbox, HD version of that.

They let me down. The XBLA Mr. Driller is based on Mr. Driller 1, which is not nearly as good because the width of the playing field is only 9 blocks, while the width of the field on Mr. Driller 2 coin-op is 15 blocks. The wider field makes the game more complex, a lot harder, and therefore a lot more fun and playable.

Oh, and did I mention the XBLA version online multiplay sucks donkey dick?

I have tried every version of Mr. Driller I can get my hands on, and none of them except the coin-op are any good. I might just have to start making space in my garage unless someone gets the MAME ROM working.

Managed to connect with Russe11 on Xbox Live! yesterday. Finally, another person in my friend list who plays Tetris Splash and is ranked higher than a bazillion.

Ling tells me her cousins in Taiwan like to play too, so maybe I can make some new friends and practice my Mandarin before we head over there.

Crazy, okay. So I was just searching for “Tetris Splash” to get an image to go with the post. Whose blog shows up in position #4 on Google? Russe11 again! Are there really no other NPR-listening, Tetris Splash-playing, mobile-web-developing night owls out there?

Check out a good review of matching/puzzle games here