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Saturday 9 February, 2008
Gamelog Entry #2
GAMEPLAY
My second session of Paperboy was different than the second sessions of the other games I played. For the first time, I wasn't bored in my second session. I was still enjoying the game, and there was even still a little excitement in me. I was liking the new challenges of the new levels, and the intensity of the game as I was determined to beat it. Still no characters or story thus far, and I think it's going to be like that for the rest of the game. The only characters could be the hilarious neighborhood people that are trying to stop you from delivering papers. People like:
-The woman who sprints out of her house after you with a kitchen knife
-A small running person dressed in orange who has loops around his hands. (A convict?)
-A large, completely grey woman who stands in your way with a GIANT SCYTHE. (I call her grandma death.)
-A man who appears to be on his back, flailing his legs in the air as he trys to put his pants on?
As you progress through paperboy, these neighbors come to have a warm place in your heart.
DESIGN
I think the game is actually pretty innovative. Though technically it still is just a side-scroller where you throw things at different things... I think what PaperBoy does hasn't really been done in any other games I've played.
You are Paperboy on a bike that is constantly moving forward. This is one of the first elements that make the game difficult, because objects are always coming at you've got to maneuver around them. Simultaneously, you have to be able to throw your newspapers onto people's doorsteps, which takes good timing. The idea of being a paperboy and making a paper route could really be complicated, but Nintendo pulls it off pretty well. I liked these elements of the game.
The level design in this was really basic, each level as you progress only differs because there are more enemies. This could be the weak point in this game, but this small difference is all that is necessary to make the levels harder. The game remains interesting because when you successfully deliver papers to certain houses, they remain on your paper route. But houses that you miss, or damage with the papers (like breaking a window) makes them unsubscribe. Thus, almost every level has different houses that you need to deliver too. Of course, since the game is pretty well designed, it's clear to the player which houses you need to to cover and which you don't. Not only does it lay it out on a map of the block before the level begins, but while you're actually playing the level the houses you don't need to hit are a bold firetruck red color.
To make another criticism of Paperboy, i could talk about its use of space. Though you can theoretically ride your bike anywhere between houses, signs, etc... The realistic place for you is right on the sidewalk. If you stray to the right of the screen, you'll likely get hit by a car, and if you are on the left, an object in someones front yard will come up on you and you won't be able to get out of the way in time. So really your space is limited in this game, but I think it's just another aspect that keeps the game challenging.
Paperboy has a reward structure that I think is cool. If you make it through the day without missing a single house, you get a "resubscriber" at the end of the level. I should mention that there are two ways to lose the game. You can run out of lives, which are lost by crashing your bike into things, and you can run out of paper subscribers by not delivering to them. So if you have a bad run on one of the first levels, a good performance later can make up for it. I really like this feature.
I loved this game, and I think it could be remade with today's videogaming technology into another hit. (Especially with the Wii!) Though Paperboy is quite difficult at first, it's good design make it a lot of fun.
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