Game: Boulder Dash XL
Platform: XBLA
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Developer: Catnip Games
ESRB: E
Genre: Retro Arcade
Players: 1
What's Hot: Classic gameplay remains intact; various modes; challenging
What's Not: The sudden shifts in difficulty can be jarring
Review by: Neilie Johnson
For many of us, it's going on 27 years (!!) since we've played Boulder Dash. An original arcade title dating back to the paleozoic era of gaming (1984), Boulder Dash stars a stubby little mining robot called Rockford whose sole purpose is to excavate caves and rescue big fat diamonds from them. Kalypso Media—a company known more for its strategy titles than its arcade offerings—brings us Boulder Dash XL, a fun and challenging reboot of this classic arcade favorite.
In concept, Boulder Dash is somewhat like Dig-Dug, another arcade standard. The main idea is to guide a little mining robot through a 2D field of maze-like earthen passages, collect the sparklies and escape through the exit. This is trickier than it sounds since the gems you seek are tucked amongst teetering stacks of unstable boulders that can easily shift and drop, thus crushing you into a tin and steel frittata. In addition to these somewhat unexpected rockfalls, bizarre monsters roam the cave passages, intent on crashing your mining missions and cutting them short. Kalypso's slick XBLA update of the game does a solid job of retaining most of the original's core gameplay mechanics and makes the game more accessible by modernizing its admittedly old-fangled graphics.
In Boulder Dash XL, you play either as Rockford or as his cute little robot companion, Crystal (the choice is purely cosmetic). Both the 'bots and the 8-bit environments have been brought up to date with sharp, colorful graphics that are modern enough to bring things to life but don't upstage the game's simple, addictive mechanics. The game's main Arcade mode follows the original game's format, tasking you with opening each cave's exit by collecting a predetermined number of diamonds within a set time frame. You dig passages, push boulders and do your best not to be squashed by big-ass rocks and it all feels so dang easy. In fact, the early part of the game is likely to puff you up and get you imagining your name dominating the leaderboards. And then you hit cave oh...16 or 17 and realize what a starry-eyed fool you've been.
These days most of us have gotten used to games taking it easy on us, giving us another chance, firing a couple of warning shots if you will, before saying it's Game Over. Boulder Dash XL doesn't do that. Made in the old school mold, it snickers if a boulder drops on you and laughs out loud if you let a monster get too close. You get hit and there are no second chances—you're merely shut down and forced to start the level again from the beginning. For many gamers this will mean playing the game's higher levels a good number of times before passing them. That isn't to say that the game is unfair; it just says there's a level of concentration and skill required that's not usually asked of the contemporary gamer.
Fortunately, unlike the Boulder Dash of 1984, if the Arcade mode in Boulder Dash XL gets too frustrating, you can stop playing it and do something else. The game's untimed Zen Mode gives you all the same maps and all the same gem-collecting, monster-outsmarting fun as the Arcade Mode without the stress of a ticking timer. It also lets you learn to use the game's powerups. Things like dynamite charges, speed boosts and a boulder-throwing telescopic arm are highly useful but can be difficult to master when a ticking clock has you panicked. Zen Mode lets you take your time and figure these things out before jumping into them in Arcade Mode. Both the Arcade and Zen modes offer a good amount of gameplay but in addition to these, you have three other modes to choose from: Puzzle, Retro and Score Attack.
Puzzle Mode presents you with abbreviated versions of the arcade maps and gives you a limited number of moves within which to retrieve the gems and access the exit. Solving these takes some real thought and is more about strategy than manual dexterity; it's a good pace-changer. Retro Mode takes you back to the early days of Boulder Dash, where men were men and diamonds looked like misshapen eggs with built-in mail slots. This mode offers you a pre-game warning that in the olden days, games were harder so you should expect falling diamonds to crush you as readily as falling boulders. Without doubt, Retro Mode is more difficult than Arcade Mode but gamers up for it will be treated not only to a fun challenge, but to a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Finally, Score Attack Mode features some interesting custom maps with kooky volcanic or tropical island themed artwork and changes things up by making exits accessible from the get-go and giving you the freedom to concentrate on achieving your highest score.
Boulder Dash XL has a lot to offer but might ultimately be off-putting to modern gamers due to its sudden difficulty spike as well as its core concept that one misstep means starting levels all the way over. With so many games to choose from, today's gamers don't have to be as receptive to the notion of replaying the same levels 20 or 30 times in order to pass them and so might stop playing the game half way through. That said, for the most part, Boulder Dash XL is a solid, polished repackaging of an arcade favorite. With a colorful graphic update, five game modes and 150 maps to choose from, it's a good entertainment value...that is, if you're patient enough to accept the old school standards of difficulty and level replay.
Neilie Johnson is a regular contributor to
GameShark
, as well as
Atomicgamer.com
and
IGN
and is an associate editor of the new GameFan Magazine.
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