Bouncers

Sega CD

Review by Joe Santulli

Sega

Puzzle

Graphics:

Sound:

Gameplay:

Overall:


When I saw this recently at a Toys R Us for just $9.98, I said to myself “looks like a puzzle game” (why do all puzzle games have titles like this), “and they’re always a steal at that price”. I should’ve looked closer at the box.

This game attempts to be an action game, loosely based on basketball but more like racquetball than anything else. Each of the eight characters is a basketball with some personality. Ugh is a caveman basketball, Fu is a martial arts basketball, Tank is a colonel basketball... you get it, right? And the idea is to bounce off of the other guy and into a hoop. There are eight locales, representing the home town of each character. The hoops can be anything from a snow-capped mountain crevasse to a monkey holding his arms out in a hoop shape. One of the problems is right here - you can’t always see the goal clearly. The other problem with the backgrounds is that they’re one screen wide. No scrolling, no multiple screens per stage. Just one screen, two or more hoops, and the two characters. Powerups fall from the sky and can offer anything from super jumping abilities to quick points.

That’s the whole game. It could have been better - the physics don’t seem very natural, and you feel “out of control” most of the time. The characters are too small to truly appreciate, which is unfortunate because they appear nicely rendered in their current tiny state. This game won’t win many fans, and with the demise of the Sega CD is headed for obscurity-ville.

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Last updated: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 02:16 PM