Boulder Dash
(C) 1984 First Star Software
Game by Peter Liepa and Chris Grey.
We won't begin with a story. That's useless stuff we don't need. Let's just say there are 16 caves and 4 bonus caves in where you have to dig through the earth to collect a certain amount of diamonds and then find the exit that leads to the next cave. The gameplay is simple and fun at first but shows off good stuff pretty early. First of all there are boulders you can push around but you shouldn't let them fall on your head or block your own way with them. There are 3 different monsters roaming the levels, two of them can only move in free spaces: If you free them from their pits, they're running on the edges, strolling through your tunnels until they catch up on you and rip you apart. One moves clockwise, the other one counterclockwise. Both of them are dangerous, but the butterfly-look-a-like is a diamond treasure, so destroy it with falling boulders! The growing slime in some of the caves won't kill you by touch, but it can block your path to victory. There are other nice features, like the bonus-time where you have to let boulders fall through walls to change them into diamonds or the special move where you hold down the fire button and move in a direction to open up the path without moving there. There's definately much thought put into that little and challenging game.
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Graphics are just right and very clean, without any fancy stuff. There are some subtle special effects when you start a cave or when the bonus time is on. The hero Rockford has some neat little animations when standing still and the diamonds have that collect-me glow. So it's not as generic as it seems at first. In the sound department we have a really catchy title tune but the rest of the game has no music at all. You have the crunchy crash sound when something is destroyed, the wobbly slime-sound in the slime-stages, the glockenspiel sound of falling diamonds and some other well done bits, and all of them are pretty recognizable. Technically there's nothing done wrong here. Beginners will be happy that there's a cave-select on the title screen so you don't need to always start from the first level. You can enter the game at cave 1, 6, 11 and 16.
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You like skill-based easy to learn puzzle games? This classic has a challenge for you. Try to beat it, still feels as good as 25 years ago.
08/10 Audiovisuals - Fitting style! Great retro look! Good effects in the right places. Looks, sounds and feels much better than the generic artwork and music from the likes of
Boulder Dash Rocks! for the DS.
09/10 Gameplay - The best things in Boulder Dash have been left out in the new versions to get filled up with boring and lame additions. This is the original. The one where the maker has put his heart in. This is the version you want to play.
08/10 Overall - 500 points for 20 levels that range from easy to puzzling to challenging to interesing to wtf?! Yeah, this game has quite some depth, and many levels show off some interesting elements. And that's my only gripe with the game. It could have been much longer! Many great features are only used in 1 or 2 of those caves. What a waste!! You know why the level editor in
Boulder Dash Construction Kit was so well-received! Well, completionists will have their day anyway. Try beating every stage with as many diamonds as possible is replay value that you can make your own personal challenge.
SCORE: 25/30 EVERGREEN
More info:
Boulder Dash - Fansite Boulder Dash - Beautiful maps to all twenty caves. Boulder Dash - Title Theme mp3 Boulder Dash - Complete walkthrough video Boulder Dash - Official First Star Software website