Cool Ball

"Not what I expected - much better!"

I'm sure you've never heard of Pop Up before.(but those of you that have probably can't find anything about it on the Internet right?) Well anyway, Pop Up is a great game and in this review I intend to prove it to you. All I have to say before we begin is I can't believe I found it.

Story N/A
I got this at a Pawn Shop with no box and no manual. So I don't know the story. But I don't think it would be very good because...

Gameplay 7/10
You're a ball and you bounce on platforms and use Left and Right to move to the platform next to you. A and B make you bounce up on the platform you are on as long as there are no platforms directly above you. You have to collect power ups(which are weird shapes) the power ups do different things (the cross thing breaks certain walls) I haven't worked out what all of them do yet. After you collect most of the power ups an exit sign will appear somewhere in the level, then you have to touch it to finish the level. Some walls can be destroyed; you can tell if you can destroy them if they are black with a white stripe (I can't be bothered to play this on my Colour Gameboy yet) on the bottom, middle or top. If you hit them the stripe moves up or if the stripe is on the top already then the wall blows up. Some platforms are fixed to a spot (so you can't bounce on them). Others disappear after you bounce on them for too long. You get points for each power up you get and points for finishing the level. You might also get points when you destroy a wall. There are also bricks that you need a lightning bolt power up to destroy. There’s a password save, but you’re given different passwords depending on what power ups you have at the start of the level. I was going to give it 8 but sometimes when you press jump it doesn’t and it can get a bit annoying when you press A then left only to find that you didn’t jump and you tilted yourself off the level.

Graphics 6/10
The graphics are alright, once you’ve worked out what you’re doing you can tell what everything is but I’ve seen much better graphics on some other Gameboy puzzlers. Then again what do you expect from a game about a bouncy ball? In short, the graphics do the job but there’s nothing special about them.

Music & Sound 8/10
The music is really great. It’s very jolly and somehow just that little bit extra to the whole game. It probably just fits in to the idea of being a bouncy ball and speaking of fitting… The sound fits well into the game. Even though there aren’t all that many sounds there are different sounds for different power ups and that’s about it except for the sound when you bounce and the sound when you destroy a wall.

Challenge & Replay 7/10
It’s pretty hard to figure out what to do in some of the levels but it’s still fun to try out theories and then form a new one if it doesn’t work. It’s fun to replay because you can keep on beating it and setting new high scores as you go. (NOTE: when you turn off the game the high score is erased) but you could just remember your high score. Also, you could set certain goals for yourself. It’s not very easy to get frustrated either.

To buy or to rent: Buy
Because it’s been quite a while since I saw a video shop renting out Gameboy games, and if you like puzzlers you’ll probably want it for longer than a week.

Overall 8/10
An excellent and original game if you like puzzlers. Then again my favourite type of game is a First Person Shooter closely followed by Beat-‘em-ups but this is an exception, and an exception I’m glad I made. It just shows that you don’t have to be breaking someone’s jaw or filling them full of lead to enjoy yourse

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/01, Updated 07/05/01