Paperboy

The Good
Maybe it's because I've spent half of my childhood on the street doing a paper round, but there is no other video game character I could identify with more than this Paperboy.

The Bad
From today's perspective, neither the graphics nor the gameplay suit modern standards, but you have to consider that this game is about 30 years old. The high difficulty is the only thing that was always a bummer and ever will be.

The Bottom Line
Other players might know similar games like Paper Wizard (on iOS, not available anymore) or Stickerboy without even knowing that there is a predecessor for this genre. Well, there is. So if you want to get straight to the roots of a paperboy simulation game with a lot of fun, you got to start your journey here.

The Good
Nice difficulty. Requires you to develop a rhythm for the obstacles in order to defeat the game.

The Bad
No need to replay, unless you’re trying for a higher score.

The Bottom Line
Enjoyable and challenging for a few hours.

The Good
I liked the originality. At first glance, it seems a rather odd game to make! A game based on a paper route? Weird. Until you play the blasted thing! VERY challenging game indeed. It is a surprisingly hard game to master, which makes it fun because it is so damned frustrating! It makes you WANT to master it. It teases you, taunts you and mocks you into doing better. It has a weird dual personality, it SEEMS simple, but is hardly the case!
Not only does it dare you to complete your route and deliver your papers to all your customers, but you must do so quickly, efficiently and at the same time, avoid all sorts of obstacles!
A lot of the game play is fun and funny. Some of the obstacles are funny; a swarm of bees, a break dancing kid, a couple of guys fist fighting, kids playing with a remote control car etc.
Another fun thing is at the end of each level you ride directly into a bonus race course full of jumps, bonus points and targets.

The Bad
A few things. First while very challenging, it defeats the fun by being TOO hard.
The difficulty comes in many forms. The first is the overall difficulty. The first one or two levels are somewhat easy, with practice, to master. After that forget it. The houses come too fast, the streets are too full of obstacles and you find you're loosing more and more customers, and soon a trickle becomes a wave.
The most obvious thing that makes this hardest is the odd diagonal direction you travel on the screen. It is VERY hard to get used to and is not a favorable view. It doesn’t seem natural and fools the eye and depth perception, making your throws difficult to say the least. While original, after a while it does become a bit monotonous and doesn’t really offer much new past a few levels.

The Bottom Line
A different kind of game, but fustrating.
Lots of replay value because of the difficulty. It is more of an arcade classic, and difficult, is a keeper and one to keep in a collection. Pull it out on a rainy day once in a while to waste some time.