Boppin'

It's like Bop It, except for that it has no qualities in common

By and large, I am glad that the shareware model for selling games has kind of faded into the past like the Cold War. You've heard about it and maybe even lived through it, but while it was a major headache in the past, the world's moved beyond it and it doesn't really enter your consciousness on a day-to-day basis. Much more, I'm glad that the days of paid shareware are over. Back when I was a stupid little kid, I thought I had actually purchased Duke Nukem 3D for only ten dollars at Target, but no, I had only purchased the first episode. At that age, that's all I really needed, but had I made that mistake as an adult, I'd be one frowny fellow.

There is, of course, some nostalgic value to the age of shareware. After all, I'd never have known that one of the key features of the CD-ROM version of Rise of the Triad was that I could use its shiny surface to blind foes had it not been listed on the post-game buy screen. ROTT is a good example all around, actually, given the shareware episode was actually just a bonus mini episode that wasn't included in the regular game, but I digress.

When it came to Apogee's games, though, I mainly confined myself to the shareware contained on my full, registered DN3D disc. As such, Boppin' was a title that escaped me, and while I might not have appreciated it much as a kid, I'm glad to have come across it now. Glad if slightly unsettled.

Player 1's character, Yeet, standing in front of some arcade classics like HAPPY and FUN

So, let's just get this out of the way first. The soundtrack is weird as hell, and is pretty jarring given the cartoony style of the game. It's pretty clear listening to it that there were some basic skeletons of songs that were directly sequenced before the composer went nuts improvising over it with his MIDI piano. I listened to the .mids in Windows before playing the game, actually, and thought there was something wrong with the playback, but after actually playing through the game a bit in DOSBox and checking out a few gameplay videos on YouTube, It seems that's what they were actually going for.

This is further confirmed by a sort of open letter at the beginning of the game from developer Accursed Toys that says, in so many words, that they made the game weird on purpose, citing something about the nature of art or whatever. I skipped over this screen the first time playing the game, which really helped the game to actually be weird. The irony, of course, is that a full-screen message telling you you're going to be weirded out by the game results in the game actually being much less weird. The really cynical of you out there might call it "forced," but I'm a little nicer than that so I'll just say it's a bit self-conscious. Ideally you'll play the game for the first time without reading this message, like I did. Of course, if you're reading this, it's already been spoiled for you, so I apologize.

Typical gameplay in Boppin', showing off an atypical blueprint-styled tileset, which is really neato.

Despite the fact that I just kind of crapped all over it, I am on the whole a fan of the game's aesthetic. There's a wide variety of tilesets that are varied and look nice. The styles change radically between levels, but being a puzzle game it's not like you're really looking for motivation behind the different locations.

That reminds me that I haven't actually said a thing about the actual game yet. In terms of gameplay, Boppin' has a little bit in common with regular tile matching games, but its got its own style that I haven't really seen many clones of. The main object of the game is to get rid of all the bop blocks by throwing like bop blocks (from the spawner located near your start position) at them. You can only throw the blocks at 45 degree upward angles, and they'll ricochet off of anything until they reach their destination. Hit a like-styled bop on one of its flat sides and you'll clear all like bops that are connected to it. Hit an unlike bop or the floor and you lose a life. Different tiles will affect the trajectory of your thrown bop, and linking like blocks in certain planners will free monsters, which gives you bonus points. Like most good puzzle games, it's a simple system on its own, but it's modularity allows for complexity and cruelty as the game goes on.

Oh God, I only took two screenshots. Better copy one of Sly Ghost's artistic originals to get a third one real quick.

Thanks to this modularity, the game also includes a fully-featured level editor that can be used to great effect if you're patient with it. It's also nice for looking through all the swell tilesets in the game, so that's nice.

With my minor qualms aside, Boppin' is a good and playable DOS puzzle game, and you can go get the Windows version for free. I can't comment on it (though I have heard that the Amiga version has different music, and apparently this Windows version is based on that) because I only found out about this while doing a bit of extra research after playing the DOS version, but hey, it's a fun, free puzzle game. Go for it, man! Triumph or die!