"Window smashing and car busting paper rounds, the way they should be."

Paperboy 2 was a game released on the Game Boy in 1992. It's simple what you have to do. Go up a street on your bike, and throw papers in the box. It doesn't sound very exciting, but it's quite a decent game.

You can either be a paperboy or a papergirl, it's no different, they're both the same. You ride on a bike, and you have to go up a road delivering papers. You don't get off your bike, you stay on it. You have to throw the paper either in the letter box, that is outside the house, or at the front of the door. So you think this is easy? Well you're wrong. You have to dodge all the obstacles. Bullets firing from military bases, ghosts, birds, cars, people mowing the lawn. babies zooming down the pavement in the pram, etc.

You do your paper round from Monday to either Friday or Sunday (It's so hard I don't know which, I haven't got that far.)

The streets you deliver in have many obstacles. If you crash or get hit , you lose one of five lives. If you get a perfect delivery without missing houses in the previous round, you get an extra life. If you lose all five lives, you get fired, and it's game over.

You can earn points for hitting certain things, and getting papers in the letterbox. Hitting certain things makes them freeze still but hitting the wrong thing and breaking windows with papers gives you damage points, so watch it!

If you complete the round, there is a rewarding obstacle course at the end. You can pick up lots of points there, and put your damage points down to 0. It is quite challenging, you have to hit targets with papers and jump over ramps.

The graphics are quite impressive, especially for Game Boy. It is in a scrolling 3-D environment. The paperboy's animation can look a bit sketchy, but the environments are well done. Average graphics for the game boy is 2-D, so this is quite advanced for its specs. The problem is that it does get very samey, you keep seeing the same houses again, day by day, there is hardly any difference. As you progress there will be some new houses, but not many.

The background music on this game is a bit bland, but not rubbish. It's the same tune for every round and sound effects are just a ping. Not very good in this area.

The gameplay, going around delivering papers is quite original and breaking windows is quite a new take on. Just for a game of course, delivering papers in real life has been going on for years, and you get paid. Here you pay money to buy the game. It is thoroughly good fun, smashing windows and the like. Dodging obstacles is a challenging task, but I can't get anywhere past Easy street on Thursday. But there are better games out there, and no other developer you see would make a game like this. For Gmae Boy, I would class this as a gem.

There is quite a bit of addiction in this game, but not exactly hours of fun.

Summary

Graphics 3D environments are quite advanced, but gets too repeatetive. 9/10
Sound Pretty bland music. 5/10
Gameplay Fun and challenging, but gets boring. 7/10
Length Quite addictive, but not too hardcore. More of a novelty. 5/10

Buy or rent?

Neither. This games old, and not worth bothering with. Could try though, if desperate.

Overall
This is a good attempt graphically and quite original, but why don't you just get a real paper round?

Score 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/03/03, Updated 03/22/05