Controlling Susumu Hori, the titular "Mr. Driller", the player must dig their way to the bottom of the screen by destroying colored blocks that litter the playfield.

Mr. Driller was designed by Yasuhito Nagaoka and produced by Hideo Yoshizawa, best known for his work on Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and the Ninja Gaiden series.

[3] The player controls Susumu Hori, the titular "Mr. Driller", who must destroy all of the piling-up blocks before they take over the city of Downtown.

[5] Mr. Driller was designed by Yasuhito Nagaoka and produced by Hideo Yoshizawa, the latter being known for his work on the Ninja Gaiden series for Tecmo.

Nagaoka was designing Dig Dug 3 as a title for home consoles, as arcades at the time were dominated by fighting games.

Yoshizawa convinced Nagaoka to make Dig Dug 3 an arcade game, believing it would become lost in a crowded home console market.

[6] Several changes were made when Yoshizawa joined the project, which included a faster pace, a new player character, and the game being renamed to Mr.

[7][6] The characters and graphical style were designed by Namco artist Kaori Shinozaki, who had previously assisted in production of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and LiberoGrande.

[7] When the finished product was presented to the sales department of Namco, executives estimated that 3,000 units had to be sold in order for the game to turn a profit.

[6] Namco demonstrated Mr. Driller at the 1999 Amusement Machine Show (AMO) in Tokyo, alongside Crisis Zone and Sweet Land 4.

[45] GameSpot echoed a similar response, criticizing the PlayStation and Game Boy Color versions for lacking any sort of replay value and being a "short-lived" experience,[3][40] while AllGame disliked the poor amount of content and presentation, unfavorably comparing it to Puzzle Bobble.

[26] GameSpot also criticized the PlayStation version for not having a multiplayer mode, although noted that the $20 price point made this somewhat forgivable.

The first of these, aptly titled Mr. Driller 2, was released for arcades in 2000 and followed by a Game Boy Advance port a year later, adding multiplayer and new gameplay mechanics.

[50] Mr. Driller G was released for both arcades and the PlayStation in 2001 for Japan only, adding a story mode and new characters, including Dig Dug series protagonist Taizo Hori.

Mr. Driller Drill Spirits was released as a launch title for the Nintendo DS in Japan and North America in 2004, and in Europe in 2005.

[57] The PlayStation Portable version of Pac-Man World Rally adds Susumu and his dog Puchi as playable characters, alongside Mappy.