Paperboy (1999)

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Paperboy (1999)
When you thought that a reboot could never been worse than you can ever imagine.
Genre(s): Action
Platform(s): Nintendo 64
Release Date: November 4, 1999
Developer(s): High Voltage Software
Publisher(s): Midway Games
Predecessor: Paperboy 2

Paperboy is a reboot of the well received 1984 game of the same name, it was released exclusively on the Nintendo 64 in 1999 and was released only in North America.

The game would receive mixed reviews by critics, but overwhelmingly negative reviews by players who even consider this to be one of the worst games on the console and even calling it the second worst game on the system after Superman 64.

Why The Paperboy Failed His Mission

  1. The main problem with this game is that it's completely lacking the charm of the Paperboy franchise with the first two games, since the game doesn't translate well to 3D, and there are so many things wrong with the game that you cannot even list all of them.
  2. The controls are a massive downgrade from the arcade games since they're extremely stiff, clunky, and unresponsive to the point of making the game nearly unplayable and even harder than it is due to how unresponsive they are. It's also not helped by the fact that aiming is horrible in this game and even more difficult than the arcade games (see WTPFHM#5).
    • Not to mention that it's not helped by the fact that the controller of the console makes the controls even worse than playing on an emulator, since, of course, the controls were never designed with the controller in mind, so if you have trouble with them, then the game is likely going to be even more unplayable.
  3. The graphics, even by the standards of the Nintendo 64, are absolutely awful and looks like a 1995 Sega Saturn game instead of a 1999 N64 game, with many blocky character models and awful color choices, even in Super Mario 64, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, Bomberman 64, Doraemon 2: Nobita to Hikari no Shinden, Pac-Man World and South Park on the N64 all look better than this, and they're released between 1996 and 1999!
    • It should have been mentioned that, according to a comment of the game's programmer on the longplay video of this game by World of Longplays, he claimed that they're going for a graphics style, but due to the limitations of the console, it's failed miserably and looks more uncanny than it actually would have been if it weren't for the limitations.
    • Some of the characters don't even have faces, such as a man in the intro when he says to Paperboy, "Right in Time."  Not even a 1996 N64 game would have such an issue for the character model.
  4. The game is extremely short, lasting only 2 hours, not to mention that there are barely any replay value even when compared to the arcade games.
  5. The game difficulty ranges from easy to unfairly hard for some awful reasons, since some missions have awful difficulty spikes, and sometimes there are missions that are hard only because of the awful controls that make the game nearly unplayable, making some missions severely difficult because of a timer too.
    • Speaking of timed missions, they are the absolute worst levels of the game since they are unfairly hard, because either it's hard because of the awful controls or because the timer is horribly strict to the point of making some of these nearly impossible to beat at times.
  6. Awful optimization even for a Nintendo 64 game, since the game appeared to be very poorly programmed and it was even to the point that the PS1 port didn't go well and had to be cancelled because of this, but it wasn't really confirmed if it was for this reason or not.
  7. The soundtrack is rather bland and generic, especially compared to the arcade game music, since here they sound repetitive and you could easily forget that it's playing in the levels, even though the soundtrack of this game can be somewhat nostalgic.
  8. While the Paperboy redesign in the box art is great, the characters' designs in the game are really bad, and some, as said before, 'don't even have eyes on their face'''s.
    • This is especially true for Paperboy, who looks incredibly creepy due to the poor graphics, as his face is very disturbing to the point of making SpongeBob disturbing faces look less disturbing at times.
  9. Boring and repetitive gameplay, as you do the same objectives again and again, to the point of the levels being sometimes rehashed to get new levels into the game that are mostly similar to the previous levels that you played.
  10. Terrible level design that is made even worse by the fact that the controls are extremely bad, some of the levels are also similar to each other, and there are even some levels that are nearly impossible to beat due to the awful game design, hence making this game an absolute nightmare to play compared to the arcade games.
  11. Rather poor and boring cutscenes that barely had any voice acting and were not even explaining a story, thus making them pretty useless for the most part.
  12. Awful hit-detection.
  13. Terrible ending.
  14. Some of the levels had extremely strict timers that made them nearly impossible to beat, making these levels severely difficult at best due to how horrible the controls are. Also, these levels are also the worst of the entire game due to this reason.
  15. The boss fights are pretty bad since they are mostly here to try something innovative, but due to the fact that they are way too easy, at least if you don't have trouble with the controls.
  16. Aiming your paper is quite hard due to the horrible controls and also because of the poor hit detection that is way worse than the arcade games. This is especially a problem with the timed missions that are severely difficult due to their timer and the awful controls.
  17. It's completely killed the Paperboy franchise, since due to the negative reviews, there weren't any other new Paperboy games to be made with the exception of the Game Boy Advance port of it that came out with Rampage (another arcade classic), and there's no plan to reboot the franchise, not to mention that the franchise is pretty much forgotten.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. The intros are pretty good, especially the one before the title screen.
  2. At least this game could have been decent if it weren't for the awful level design and the terrible controls that make the game nearly unplayable.
  3. There is still some humor in this game, such as in the intro.

Reception

Paperboy received negative reviews by critics, who criticized the graphics, the controls and the level design, howewer the players were less mixed and gave the game overwhelmingly negative reviews and even said that this is the second worst game of the N64 after Superman 64.

Trivia

  • A PlayStation port of the game was planned to be released in 2000, but was cancelled, likely due to the negative reviews, howewer a prototype was found, but was not finished.

Videos

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