{"id":19981,"date":"2020-03-23T00:01:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T00:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=19981"},"modified":"2020-03-09T12:59:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T12:59:21","slug":"boulder-dash-30th-anniversary-switch-mobile-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/23\/boulder-dash-30th-anniversary-switch-mobile-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Boulder Dash 30th Anniversary (Switch, Mobile, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m such a staunch console gamer now that you might be surprised to learn that when I was a kid, I started out playing home games on computer.\u00a0 Our first PC was an Apple ][+, and outside of arcades, that\u2019s where I played most of my games until I got an Atari 5200.\u00a0 One of the games I remember playing on that old computer was Boulder Dash.\u00a0 It was an action puzzle game that was kind of like Dig Dug in that you dug through the earth, collecting gems while trying not to get squished by falling boulders.\u00a0 And now you can celebrate its revival with Boulder Dash 30th<\/sup> Anniversary.\u00a0 At first I was like, \u201cIsn\u2019t Boulder Dash more than 30 years old?\u201d\u00a0 And yes, it is.\u00a0 This Switch version (reviewed here) is just a port of an older version that was released a few years ago on PC and mobile when it really was Boulder Dash\u2019s 30th<\/sup> anniversary.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to read more about the history of Boulder Dash, please click here<\/strong><\/a>. \u00a0Just make sure to read my review first!<\/p>\n

In the game you move the hero, Rockford, around caves in four directions as he tries to collect gems.\u00a0 Collect enough gems and you can open the exit and finish the level.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not that easy!\u00a0 If you dig under a boulder, it\u2019ll fall on you and you\u2019ll have to start the level over.\u00a0 Gems will also fall if you dig under them, and while they won\u2019t kill you, they can cause a chain reaction to fall depending on what\u2019s above.\u00a0 You also have to deal with enemies like fireflies and moths.\u00a0 Touch one and you\u2019ll lose the level as well.<\/p>\n

Some levels are more action oriented, while others are more like puzzles.\u00a0 Certain enemies will react differently if you squish them with a boulder.\u00a0 Fireflies will explode like dynamite when squished, and moths will turn surrounding boulders into gems when defeated.\u00a0 There are also amoeba that continues to grow until you trap them in boulders, and then it\u2019ll turn into a bunch of gems. \u00a0Gas bubbles will rise if you dig above them and defeat anyone in the way, including you!<\/p>\n

As you dig, you may uncover treasure chests and if you complete the level after collecting them, you can open them afterward.\u00a0 Treasures may have power-ups you can use in the level, like dynamite to blow up walls and boulders, snowflakes to freeze time so boulders won\u2019t fall on you, and a score multiplier.\u00a0 You can also get money and other items so you can buy more power-ups and even secret characters to play as!\u00a0 Some of these characters have different attributes, like faster speed or doubles your money or score.\u00a0 To unlock levels, you\u2019ll need to earn stars by beating stages with a high score, three stars per stage.\u00a0 There are more than a hundred stages, too!\u00a0 Some even have themes like Halloween and you can even play ones based on levels from the classic game!<\/p>\n

The game does a good job in getting you to learn the ropes in the early levels, but the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly!\u00a0 And that\u2019s really one of the only problems I had with the game, other than it has a mobile game feel to it in that it takes forever to buy things (no in-game purchases here, though).\u00a0 But the game DID start out as a mobile title, so that explains things.\u00a0 One thing that also got me in the old game and this one, too, is that I can never remember when rocks will fall straight down and when they\u2019ll fall to the side, but maybe that\u2019s just me.\u00a0 At any rate, if you like classic games and action puzzlers, you may want to check out Boulder Dash.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can squish enemies with boulders and get hit yourself.\u00a0 But if you do, your character just spins around and says, \u201cOh no!\u201d and that\u2019s as violent as it gets.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and younger gamers may find it a bit too difficult.\u00a0 Boulder Dash 30th<\/sup> Anniversary is rated E for Everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m such a staunch console gamer now that you might be surprised to learn that when I was a kid, I started out playing home games on computer.\u00a0 Our first PC was an Apple ][+, and outside of arcades, that\u2019s where I played most of my games until I got an Atari 5200.\u00a0 One of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19983,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19981\/revisions\/19983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}