King, the iPhone game developers that have a knack for getting us addicted to whatever they make, might have put out their best product since Candy Crush Saga. Alliteratively named like its predecessor, Diamond Digger Saga is a similar match-3 puzzle game that enlists you to help Diggy, a rotund, star shaped being that loves to dig for precious gems, dig tunnels in the dirt and find treasure.
Being a match-3 puzzle game, Diamond Digger Saga retains many of the game mechanics that made Candy Crush so popular. The level layout consists of multiple boards for each level, called depth levels, that are filled with diamonds of different colors. Like Candy Crush, the universal goal on each level is to make matches of three or more diamonds on the board to clear space and allow Diggy’s water to flood the board. Once a continuous path to the exit has been cleared by matching diamonds, the player moves on to the next depth level and a new board to work with. Though this level layout will be familiar to Candy Crushers, it is not identical. In Candy Crush, each level was one continuous board, whereas in Diamond Digger a level might have three, four, or even five boards to clear!
In addition to simply matching like-colored diamonds, Diamond Digger’s gameplay expands to include a range of additional level goals of varying difficulty. Some levels might have you bursting blocks of stone and collect a certain number of toys hidden within. Other levels, such as the ones with firefly objectives, might divert you from the diamond matching madness altogether, as an objective of waking sleeping fireflies with your flow of water becomes more imperative than collecting treasure. To ensure tedium-free gameplay, the type of your objective alternates with each level that you pass.
Of course, all of these objectives would be quite difficult without power-ups of some sort. Being so, King has thrown in a slew of new boosters that will aid your firefly-waking, toy-collecting, treasure-hunting impulses. For right now, there are a total of six purchasable boosters, such as the Line Blaster and Dynamite, and three in-board boosters that you can activate by including them in a match. Having such a range of tools at your disposal makes for intriguing gameplay, allowing for a little leeway in the way one can properly complete each level.
Diamond Digger Saga is King’s best game since Candy Crush. King had tried other avenues of gameplay in the past with games such as Pet Rescue Saga and Farm Heroes Saga, though they never took off quite like the original. Diamond Digger Saga manages to retain the highly addictive reward-based gameplay that made Candy Crush so successful, while not afraid to introduce new gameplay concepts as well – ideas that complement the core gameplay nicely. Diamond Digger Saga is available for free on Android and all iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. And though it is still new, a slew of Diamond Digger cheats, tips, and level walkthroughs have already emerged for players struggling on specific levels.
