Paperboy
System: NES
Release Date: December 1988
Developer: Eastridge Technology
Publisher: Mindscape
Genre: Action
Ahhhhh… Paperboy. Good ol’ Paperboy. I played a lot more Paperboy on Gameboy and Genesis than the NES version. Now I come back to this one and… woof… it is not a good game. You’re the titular Paperboy and it’s up to you to deliver the news to your subscribers.
You throw papers with the A or B Buttons and the paper moves to the left. If you speed up, the paper speeds up, if you slow down, the paper slows down. You have to get the paper in the mailbox or on the porch of your subscribers’ houses for it to count. If you’re off by a hair, you can kiss that subscriber goodbye at the end of the day.
If you’re thinking this is an easy task, you’re wrong. Eastridge did a lousy job programming this version. You constantly think you’re in the right spot, but you crash into something to your left or right. The dog enemy is annoying. The skateboarder gets you despite you being out of his way. The tornado will catch you if you aren’t at full speed. The tire will turn when you don’t expect it to. The lady runs out of both subscriber and non-subscriber houses.
At the end of the street is a training course. You can get points by hitting targets and also gain more by reaching the end of the course. If you happened to deliver to all of your subscribers, you gain a resubscriber. You play through a whole week starting Monday, though I couldn’t get past Thursday…
Graphics: 1.5
Graphics aren’t nice, but they aren’t terrible.
Sound: 1.0
The music and sounds are primitive.
Gameplay: 1.0
I don’t give much credit to the gameplay. Everything seems off, whether left or right, or the papers not landing where it looks like they should.
Difficulty: 1.0
Difficulty is due to bad controls.
Fun Factor: 1.0
Paperboy isn’t very fun on the NES.
Overall Grade: 1.1
Paperboy earns a D. Don’t play this version of the game, it’s not good.