O'Riley's Mine

The Good
O'Riley's Mine is a great-looking, fast-moving game with that just-one-more-time quality. The sharp graphics and vibrant colors are a pleasure to look at and the sound effects complement the gameplay nicely. Add in a catchy tune, responsive controls, and a good challenge and you have a tight, simple, addictive game that can satisfy for ten minutes or, sometimes, for an hour.

The Bad
The extra lives come perhaps too frequently, especially at the higher levels, when the difficulty tops out - then it becomes just an endurance test, and the repetitiveness of the game becomes too much to take. Also, some of the random ore arrangements are essentially impossible, though this isn't really a problem until things are really moving fast at the higher levels. And then the extra lives are coming so fast that it doesn't really matter. And though the little miner is mostly easy to control, occasionally and frustratingly, he'll get hung up digging too close to another tunnel.

The Bottom Line
A very fast-moving combination of Mr. Do!, Dig-Dug, and Boulder Dash: collect all the buried ore - don't miss any or you'll almost surely die! - and get back to the top while the river monsters chase you down and the underground river rises, trying to wash you away.