142: Bounder

Number 142
Bounder
YS Top 100: 90

You've got to love the old days of the Speccy, when people came up with all sorts of crazy ideas, like tennis balls bouncing on top of buildings.

Basically, you are a tennis ball, and you must reach the end of the level by navigating the best route through a series of buildings. The key is that you are constantly bouncing, and you must be careful which squares you land on: some will destroy your ball on landing, some will destroy it just by entering the space, while others will either keep you going or give you bonuses - some good, but some bad. If that wasn't hard enough, there are flying creatures ready to stop you in your tracks as well.

Now here's a game that a new player will find infuriating: it's very easy to build up a nice supply of lives, only to take the wrong path and lose them all in seconds. Clearly each level has a route that's worth learning, so you'd better practice or you'll be endlessly frustrated. The Speccy version suffers a bit as the C64 original had parallax scrolling which made it much easier to determine where you can bounce, but if you can get past that, this is a simple but fun game.

16K - No
48K - Yes
128K - Yes