Paperboy

"A Violent Day In The Neighborhood"

If nothing else, one has to admire a game like 'Paperboy' for taking a mundane chore like newspaper delivery and making a sporadically diverting game out of it. What's next? 'Pizza Delivery Guy?' 'Milkman?' Well, I guess we shall see. But for now, there's 'Paperboy.' Newspaper delivery - it's not just for money-conscious adolescents anymore.
The player takes the role of a wily young paperboy, and guides his bicycle down the street, hurling newspapers at the doorsteps and mailboxes of your customers. Naturally, it takes timing and skill to land those newspapers in the right spot. And inexplicably, various entities in the neighborhood - ranging from angry dogs and speeding cars to the Grim Reaper himself - will try to make your deliveries that much more difficult.
Why do they do this, exactly? I have no idea. One would think that if these people ordered the newspaper, they would let the paperboy bring it to them without chasing him with a knife or strewing obstacles all over the sidewalk. Your success in this game depends on making deliveries to your customers, whether or not they seem to want it. So even though Old Lady Weathergale chased you down the street with a cleaver, she'll still get mad if her paper wasn't delivered. It's all rather bizarre.
And why, oh why, is the Grim Reaper in this game? Does Death really have so much free time from his harvesting of souls that he can spare a morning or two to come into the suburbs and push a little kid off of his bike? It's amusing, I suppose, but just a little 'too much.'
The graphics in 'Paperboy' are pretty stale. Everything is very basically drawn and lacking in detail. And since there is only one street in the game (which gets repeated for each day of the week), there isn't much variety or new things to see after the first day of deliveries.
The sound is equally lacking. There is one musical track, which is not catchy the first time you hear it, and it does not improve over time. The sound effects are sparse, and range in quality from 'passable' to 'annoying.'
However, 'Paperboy' manages to gain some redemption in the gameplay department. It is a simple game, but for a short while, the action is fairly addictive. And there is no denying the humor of the moment when you first get chased by that angry little dog. But after you've mastered the timing to the paper-throwing and have driven down the same ol' street too many times, the game quickly wears thin. When all is said and done, there's really not much to this game.
But it's not all bad, and credit must be given to the designers for trying something new. 'Paperboy' is, at best, fun for a single afternoon, but there are worse ways to spend your time.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/00, Updated 02/19/00