Paperboy

"Uh huh....can we say "rehash"? I know you can..."

As with the NES version of Paperboy, you are transported into a world where you are the carrier and your customers are waiting for their morning paper. Another case of rehashing a game on another system to try and tote up the visuals and the audio, Paperboy is an average game that ranks up there with the NES version of the game, if not below it because of the lack of improvement! You still control a paperboy who needs to do his {or her depending on the gamer} round through a less than neighborly neighborhood, avoiding obstacles and other various dangers along the way. The game follows the NES version to a tee, with the game play, visuals, and audio, with the control really being the only thing that has changed any since the first release! While the game is easy enough to figure out and easy to play, there is a bit of strategy and timing that is required in order to make it through and make it successfully! Anyone who is truly into action games that have a firm foothold in addictive quality will find that Paperboy is a good start and probably one that many will come back to just to play when they are bored.

The game play works like this. You take control of a paper delivery boy who is charged with a paper route that constantly changes depending on what you do and how you deliver the papers. You’ll have a start out screen of what houses on the block are subscribing and what ones aren’t, so you’ll have to deliver to those who are your customers and not piss anyone off in the process. Doing this on a bike, you’ll face off against several different hazards that appear onscreen at a rather alarming rate, and it isn’t just human obstacles that you’ll have to avoid! You’ll be faced up against dogs, rocks, potholes and other various obstacles that get in your way and all it takes is one slip up to crash you and your bike in the pavement. What makes the game fun, is that you can either be a good delivery boy, or you can royally create havoc and mayhem in the street by throwing papers through windows and otherwise. Your scoring and how well you are viewed in the community is based on your ability to successfully place the papers in the mail boxes or even on the doorsteps of your paying customers! Something that you are trying to aim for is a complete subscription to the paper, so if you deliver the paper to non-paying customers, there is a possibility that you will turn them to your service and therefore make more money. This adds more to the game play and more of a challenge because you can increase your sales and your score dramatically by completing this small side mission of the game.

Something that is different from any other version of the game is that the control isn’t as stiff as it was in the first release. Giving you more leeway with the directional pad, the Genesis directional pad controls your paperboy through the neighborhood without the slightest problem! You can create, roll through and avoid paths that may cause you to spill, and all during this time, you can throw papers with a simple button press. Weaving through the different obstacles will always take practice, but you’re looking for a sturdy control interface to do this off of and you finally have it here. Just like the NES version, the game is easy enough to pick up and play without having to learn anything too complicated or even difficult in order to complete the different stages. If you’re a vet to the game already, then this is just a simple ride through the park with nothing to fear!

Visually, Paperboy has plenty of things to look at and there is plenty of stage interaction that can be found in the game. Papers being thrown, windows crashing and the way that you wipe your bike are all well done, even though there is more of the NES simplicity involved throughout the game that has been ported over to the Genesis system! The detailing is pretty much limited to whatever you may see in terms of houses, the lines in the sidewalk and in the way the windows crash. When you boil it down, they are simple visuals but done effectively enough to keep the feel of the game and keep a gamers interest in what they are seeing as well as performing on-screen! Something that does come up with plenty of noticeable effect is the fact that the game blanks out certain parts of the visuals when you’re really letting papers fly and when there is something that is coming at you a little too fast. This was a standard problem for the NES and it seems to be a continuing one for the Genesis as I start getting into more of their games, and really something that isn’t much considered when you’ve played the NES and the Genesis for so many years!

The audio of the game is rather droll, with nothing that really keep the pace of the game other than some Rampage style music that doesn’t inspire, but rather drags the game on. The music never changes, no matter what you do or what stage you’re on, so if you’re expecting something a little different, you might as well stop expecting the minute you turn the power on! The sound effects are standard Genesis sounds with several crashing instances coming through the speakers and the blips and bloops of papers being thrown directly on target. Really, when you break it down to what the game features in audio, there isn’t really anything that you haven’t heard before in some fashion or another in some other game! Paperboy is no exception to this in which you are given a replica of a classic game but based on a different and rival system.

Paperboy isn’t a bad Genesis game by any means, but it also isn’t anything that you haven’t seen on the NES before either! With an average showing at best, Paperboy relies more on allowing you to feel and react to the game the same way that you would in the arcade version, but sitting at home relaxing. Full of addictive qualities that include strategy and some action that comes up from time to time when you have an obstacle in your way, it is well worth picking up to play a few times before you find it boring enough to put down! Decent visuals, easy to learn control and addictive game play almost make you forget about the lack of sound, but you’ll be drawn back to that time and time again. If you already own the NES version of the game, then you really don’t need to pick this one up as it is a direct rehash of the other version, with the same porting problems and otherwise that the NES version had!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/01, Updated 12/04/01