Boulder Dash ME 2 Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Rocky's back for another diamond collecting, boulder bashing frenzy

Most people will probably have played Boulder Dash or one of its clones at some point. The basic idea is to search the cave and collect a number of diamonds and then find the exit door. There is a bit of strategy and logic to this game and some forward planning is required on some levels.

I-play's general philosophy is to produce little quick-fix games aimed squarely at the general public. Boulder Dash ME 2 fits this bill very well. The levels are short, there are plenty of hints for the beginner and the 'easy' setting is extremely easy. If anything the hints are a bit too good and not much thought is needed if you follow the instructions. You can have automatically have the hints to appear via the options menu but you will get a better experience if you turn this option off. You can always read the specific level hints during the game. There are three settings; the harder settings have more obstructions and it play a little faster. There are 30 levels in total but there is enough variation in the difficulty levels to keep you coming back for more. The game is full of subtle nudges of a bonus level which you can play if you make it to level 29 with over 15000. To achieve this, you will have to play the whole game without having to use one of the infinite continues. Extra lives are dished up every 1000 points or so. In most levels, it is possible to collect a lot more diamonds than you

Boulder Dash ME 2 does work on a very basic premise but there is loads to do. You can pick up bombs, hammers and you can even rotate the game area. This is only the tip of the iceberg and I wont spoil all the features.

Visually, the game is nothing stunning but then neither was the original. Having said that the colours and the graphics are very nice and a vast improvement on its clones.

With all the different possible moves, the controls could get complicated but they've made a good job of trying to make it as simple as possible. 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 are shortcuts keys for the various objects and special moves. If you cannot remember them you can just press the left soft key to view and select the object/move.

Overall it is a good package and it should suit the casual gamer as well as fans of the series (of which there are many).