Mythic Diggers – a retro gem dig & collection game with a twist

by Paul Wilks Jan 7, 2013 11:09 AM – Leave your thoughts

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Mythic Diggers blends retro digging gameplay with fantasy themes to produce a challenging old-school game which is engaging and fun. The game features a large mine to dig and explore with gems, ores, metals and jewels to discover and sell. Also face off rival digging teams to accumulate as much treasure as you can.

Price: Free or ~$1.29 for the full version

Tested on: Nexus 4
Content Rating: Low Maturity

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Retro graphics!
Immense mine to explore!
Lots to collect!
Requires you to often work strategically to find treasure!

Cons

Controls are tricky to begin with.

Features:

Mythic Diggers is a digging game with a twist. While it shares the basic gameplay of popular titles such as Gem Miner: Dig Deeper, you also have this fantasy element where you have to select between different races of beings: dwarves, wizards, orcs and goblins. These races have different abilities (for example dwarves have a faster digging speed than a wizard whereas wizards have higher intelligence, etc.) The aim is to collect all manner of gems, metals, jewels and other treasures and then sell them in the tower.

The first things you’ll notice about the game is the retro 2D graphics. Old school games are incredibly popular in the Google Play Store with several developers only creating games with a distinctly retro feel. Mythic Diggers has such a feel, and it takes you right back to the old digging arcade games (if you are old enough to have been there in the first place!) The mines you explore are randomly generated so it will be a different experience each time you play.

You also have lots of treasure to collect and the mine can run extremely deeply. I found that you sometimes have to work quite strategically to recover as much treasure as possible- it’s simply not good technique to dig really deep as you create a a huge hole which isn’t of any use to anyone. Instead it’s often better to work in layers and use your five characters methodically.

I did find that controls are a little tricky and, while the graphics are certainly retro, some of the UI design was very basic. There is, however, a cool teleport feature which means you can port directly to the tower (laden with treasures obviously) from where ever you are in the mine.

While the game demands a little patience from a newbie, I’m sure if you are a fan of similar games you’ll find Mythic Diggers a fun and engaging retro title. It’s not without its flaws, but if you can see around those mentioned you’ll find the game addictive, engrossing and fun.

: Mythic Diggers – Gameplay sample (1)

: Mythic Diggers – Gameplay sample (2)

: Mythic Diggers – Gameplay sample (3)

: Mythic Diggers – Gameplay sample (4)

: Mythic Diggers – Retro graphics

: Mythic Diggers – Avoid rocks etc to collect gems and jewels

: Mythic Diggers – Arrows indicate digging direction

: Mythic Diggers – Teleport to tower

: Mythic Diggers – On screen button explanation

: Mythic Diggers – Menu

: Mythic Diggers – Select race

: Mythic Diggers – Territory select

: Mythic Diggers – Back story

: Mythic Diggers – Mining store

: Mythic Diggers – Controls tutorial

Fun Factor:

If you enjoy any of; retro games, digging games or (perhaps even) Minecraft then this is worth a try. I’m not sure if it will endear gamers who demand big and bold Hollywood-level visuals and if you never really got the digging games the first time around, this does nothing to integrate you. That said, gameplay is quirky, fun, engaging and diverse if you are already familiar with the genre.

Addictive:

You will find this addictive, but I think only if you enjoy these kind of games in the first place.

Graphics:

The graphics are very old school and similar to games you might have played on a NES or even an old arcade machine. The graphics are simple in-game although I thought the menu UI was a little too basic- bland grey tabs you only really find in the most basic of Android apps. This isn’t one of those, but the UI lets it down somewhat.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

There is a kind of deep atmospheric noise in the background and several little effects for digging, etc. All in all, very basic indeed.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

AndroidTapp.com Rating! (4.2 out of 5)

Should you Download Mythic Diggers? If you like the old-school digging games of yesteryear, definitely give the game a go. The game is fun and addictive, but I think you’ll only get this from the game if you’re already a fan of the genre. The basic UI and the complicated (at least to begin with) controls might put off more casual gamers but be sure to try out the demo version of the game to try it out for yourself.

Developer: Summoners of the Shore

Tags: Android App, Android Apps, Android Game, AndroidTapp.com App Review, Digging, Minecraft, Mythic Diggers, Old School, Old School Gaming on Android, retro

Categorised in: Casual