place in different countries around the world and becoming increasingly difficult. "Pressure Driller" has the player outrunning an enormous mechanical drill named the Destroyer Drill that pursues them through an endless stage; the objective is to collect orange energy capsules and use them to launch powerful blasts at the drill when its weakspot is revealed. "Time Attack" has the player completing a short stage as fast as they can while collecting clocks to stop the countdown timer. A multiplayer mode is also present, which requires two copies of the game to play. The Japanese and European releases of the game features slight alterations; these include the addition of a new character, Ataru's black pet rabbit Usagi, and a mode called "Dristone Driller" where the player must complete a stage while drilling as little as possible, with a small percentage of oxygen being depleted for drilling blocks. Items called "dristones" can also be found that have varying effects on the game based on their color, such as changing the colors of certain blocks, destroying entire formations of blocks, and giving the player a one-hit shield. Development and release Mr. Driller Drill Spirits was first announced during E3 2004 by Nintendo, in a panel relating to third-party games being produced for their upcoming handheld, the Nintendo DS. It was originally given the tentative title of New Mister Driller. Namco revealed further details on the game on September 30, renaming the game to Mr. Driller DS and saying it was about 70% complete. Produced by series creator Hideo Yoshizawa, the game was created to take advantage of the system's dual screen and touch control features. A playable demo was presented at the Nintendo Gamer's Summit in October, announced to be a system launch title alongside Ridge Racer DS. It was officially released in North America on November 30; due to time constraints, several features announced during press releases, such as the Dristone mode, were cut from the game. Drill Spirits released in Japan on December 2 with the removed features added, coinciding with the debut of the system in Japan. It was later released in both Europe and Australia on March 11, 2005. Reception Mr. Driller Drill Spirits was met with a mixed response from critics. It holds a 70/100 on review aggregator website Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Nintendo World Report said it was a great title for fans of "skin-of-your-teeth