A game that takes the endless runner genre and turns it into an endless digger game with shoot ’em up elements can’t be a really good idea, right? That is what I initially thought, but fortunately I didn’t ignore Gold Diggers just because of that and I decided to give it a try. Best decision I’ve made lately!
Gold Diggers is a charming little game that takes charge at an overpopulated genre and manages to inject it with its own style, insanely fast paced gameplay and innovation, creating an addictive product that does harm to two things only: your time and your eyes. I know that this is sort of a conclusion and should’ve been at the end of this article, but I just wanted to make sure that you know from start that you have a brilliant chunk of gold here!
No questions asked, no stories told, Gold Diggers for iPhone and iPad simply throws you underground in a fancy looking digging cart and challenges you to go as far down as possible while doing your best to collect as much gold as possible. Gold collecting really gets the second place treatment though when you will meet a ton of obstacles that mother earth sends your way: hideous worms that want to destroy your cart – including Mother worm with her huge mouth, pillars of fire, lava and rocks that you simply can’t go through.
Divided into stages that flow one after another faster than hot lava out of a volcano, the Gold Diggers “areas” are extremely fun and each comes with a different approach: fast paced lane switching is required in one stage, which quickly moves to precise obstacle slaloms, then is followed by sticking to a specific route and so on. An insane mixture of amazing things to do thrown at you at incredible pace and turning you into an addict.
And as if this wasn’t enough already, Gold Diggers also throws at you a ton of power-ups that you can purchase to improve your survival rating, but also ones that can be collected during game play, like extra lives (you start with three by default) or a cool, destroy-everything-around type of cannon and even time bonuses for the bonus mini-game at the end where you have seconds to gather as much gold as possible.
The gameplay is insanely simple but works like a charm: you simply have to tap and hold the lower part of the screen and move your finger right or left to guide your digging vehicle. As I said, works like a charm and proves that sometimes the easiest approaches are the best ones.
Visually, the game also manages to impress, even though you won’t really get a chance to admire the view and instead you’ll be fully focused on ducking obstacles and avoiding underground worms.
So in case it wasn’t very clear in my intro, let me say it again: Gold Diggers is absolutely sensational. One of the most fun, best done games I have played for months and it is offered for free, without the nagging IAPs ever becoming an issue. Really now: play this game. You will be happy you did!
iTunes link: Gold Diggers
Final rating: 9.8
Published: Aug 16, 2013 07:50 am