Bob’s Bad Day
| Developer: The Dome | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Psygnosis | Sound: |
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| Year: 1993 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Unclassifiable | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
6/10 | |
You’re familiar with Sonic, right? Specifically, the bonus levels, where Sonic rolls into a ball to collect rings in a rotating maze. It’s kind of like that here, but more complex. You control the screen’s rotation using the directional keys while still being able to jump with the fire button. In fact, it’s very similar to the bonus levels from Sonic 4 (if I may commit heresy by referencing a 2010 game). That said, the originator of this concept is an arcade game published by Taito (Cameltry, 1989), later ported to the Super Nintendo in 1993 as On The Ball.
The concept might seem too simple and repetitive to hold your attention for long, and the imprecise controls don’t help matters. Still, you can sense the effort to keep things fresh across the game’s hundred levels, with a plethora of bonuses, gravity inverters, traps, enemies, and so on. What’s more, from level 51 onwards, our friend Bob regains his body (from which he was separated—see the intro for the backstory), meaning you’ll have a second ball to guide to the exit. My delicate nerves also appreciate the variety of music, the inclusion of passwords, and unlimited continues. Much obliged!
After the amusing intro, you might expect a similarly entertaining finale. Sadly, it’s yet another static image that rewards the determined player. To save you some time, here it is: right here.
In the same vein, there’s also LocoRoco (PSP, 2006).
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