I first played this game in grade school when this game was first released in 1986 on regular Nintendo and became quickly addicted. In comparison to the newer gaming systems such as XBOX and Play station, Paperboy’s graphics are simple at best — but this doesn’t talk away from the overall entertainment of the game.
You begin by choosing the level of difficulty: Easy Street (easy); Middle Road (medium) and the Hard Way (hard). Your objective is to deliver all the papers to the paying subscribers for the entire week without falling off your bike and thus using up all your lives before the week ends.
The game spans over a duration of a week, starting with Monday, before you can advance to the next level.
This game is not as easy as it looks. Your goal is to deliver a certain amount of newspapers to the properly colored houses in a set amount of time. Easy enough right? Not exactly when you find yourself dodging dogs, break dancers, children, burglars, remote control cars, tornadoes, house cats and even the Grim Reaper who swoops out from the homes to try and knock you off your delivery route. Hitting any of these obstacles will knock you off your bike and cost you a life. On top of this, you must try to deliver the papers in the mailbox without vandalizing
the homes or throwing the paper in the bushes.
You begin your route at the beginning of the street (at the bottom of the screen) and you progress to the end of the neighborhood. You can control the paperboy's speed and the faster you deliver the newspaper, the higher your score. However, your paperboy is in constant movement and cannot stop moving forward until the level (the end of the day) is complete. Should you try to slow down too much, you will wobble and fall from the bike.
After you complete your route, the game gives you an overview of all hits and misses — in other words, you are given a summary of how many subscribers who properly received their paper. Clearly, the more subscribers you hit, the better your score. Should you need more practice to increase your biking skills — the game offers a training course that you may utilize in order to better your score.
Give this game a try and should you master Paperboy — there is always the sequel… Paperboy 2.
