Angry Video Game Nerd - Paperboy

You know I had to do it. It's the Angry Video Game Nerd video for Paperboy!

AMF1534/LovelyCheesePizza plays Paperboy - Part 2 of 2

And now for the second half of the game, where the difficulty ramps up!

It should be obvious that the further you go, the harder the game gets. New enemies pop up, some enemies, such as the kids on the tricycles and the motorcyclists on the roads, will show up in greater numbers. Some enemies, such as the dust devil and the Grim Reaper don't show up until Wednesday.

There's not really much to talk about here, other than the pondering of why some guy is breakdancing on the sidewalk and it looks like he's trying to finagle around with his pants (either he's putting them on or taking them off, depending on who you ask), how the paperboy can throw a paper so hard that it stops a dog who wants to chase him stone cold, and who can possibly be controlling those remote controlled cars, as there is nobody visible with a controller running one of those things.

When you beat Sunday - the final day of the week - the game announces that you can retire in glory! You've done it! You've won!

AMF1534/LovelyCheesePizza plays Paperboy - Part 1 of 2

Here is a game reminiscent of not only a gaming era gone by as well as days gone by, but also an occupation gone by. Hard to find a paperboy these days...

The rules are simple. Take it away, Wikipedia:

The player controls a paperboy on a bicycle delivering newspapers along a suburban street which is displayed in a cabinet perspective (or oblique projection) view. The player attempts to deliver a week of daily newspapers to subscribing customers, attempts to vandalize non-subscribers' homes and must avoid hazards along the street. Subscribers are lost by missing a delivery or damaging a subscriber's house.

The game begins with a choice of difficulty levels: Easy Street, Middle Road and Hard Way. The object of the game is to perfectly deliver papers to subscribers for an entire week and avoid crashing (which counts as one of the player's lives) before the week ends. The game lasts for seven in-game days, Monday through Sunday.

Controlling the paperboy with the handlebar controls, the player attempts to deliver newspapers to subscribers. Each day begins by showing an overview of the street indicating subscribers and non-subscribers. Subscribers and non-subscribers' homes are also easy to discern in the level itself, with subscribers living in brightly colored houses, and non-subscribers living in dark houses.

So basically, deliver papers to the brightly colored houses, try not to run into anything, and don't break any windows unless you want to lose subscribers. You also can't miss any subscribers, either. If you lose all your lives or all your subscribers, the game is over. This is especially true of the second scenario, regardless of how many lives you have left if that happens.

Thankfully, the yellow, white and blue houses are the subscribers, and the red ones are not. If you can get the newspaper to land on either the doorstep at the front of the house or into the mailbox, you've done it. Landing it in the mailbox gives you more points. It's not that simple, as the angle of the newspaper differs depending on when and where you threw the paper as well as how fast your going, as moving forward makes the newspaper curve to the right.

You only have a few newspapers in your possession, and you will have to pick up a stack of papers to get more. 

You cannot stop the bike; you can only move very slowly. This can make stuff pretty tough sometimes, especially if you're trying to get papers to all your subscribers. It also probably isn't much help that you're always near the lower-right corner of the screen at all times, which makes it harder to see some things coming if you are going fast.

You can break the windows of the red non-subscribers' houses for points.

Once you make it to the end of the neighborhood, you will make it to the training course. Throw papers at targets for points, and try not to run into anything. Thankfully, if you crash in the training course, you automatically move to the next stage. If you make it to the end, you'll stop in front of some bleachers, where a few people have been cheering you on the whole time. There is also a timer on the lower-right hand corner, so make sure to get to the goal before time is up.

If you can get newspapers to all the subscribers, you can gain subscribers as well as a reward. Keep getting perfect subscriptions to give yourself more leeway through future stages (though it can be just as easily said that you can easily do that by having only a few, it's up to you).

Now that all the bases are covered, it's time to mention a few of the enemies you'll meet. You'll see tires moving out from driveways onto the sidewalk, break dancers, dust devils, some guy with a jackhammer, remote control cars that move around on their own, the Grim Reaper, dogs, kids, motorcyclists and even grates that make it impossible to tranfer from the road back onto the sidewalk and make you crash if you ride into them. There's also a guy who comes out of a subscribing home who runs after you with what looks like a knife. And that's just a few of the enemies.

Why is the Grim Reaper here? Why is that guy coming out of his house in his robe chasing after you with an object that looks like a knife? Why do the grates make you crash? Are they covered in grease and leaves that make your wheels slip around? I have so many questions.