Review written by Shaun Beane
I was reading a review recently that mentioned that it’s amazing how sometimes we find a new piece of software and then wonder “Why hasn’t this been done before?”. That’s exactly what I thought when I first found out about Bounty Hunter. What a perfect fit for the Pocket PC. The screen size, the multimedia capabilities, and the controls all made me wonder why no other software developer had made a pinball game for the Pocket PC.
Installation was a breeze – standard ActiveSync install without a hitch. I was able to install to a compact flash card without any problems and the game performed just fine. This is becoming a standard but every once in a while you still come across a game that won’t work on a Compact Flash, so I figured I’d mention it.
The opening screen lets you see the high scores and gives you the choice of starting a new game, taking the "tour", altering the game options and, of course, quitting.
The tour is very helpful in getting started. It gives you a quick run down of how the game is played and then gives you the actual screen from the first level. At this point you can click on different objects and a brief description of that object is displayed on the screen. This turn out to be fairly important since every level has a different objective and understanding the different arrows and objects helps you figure out how to accomplish your mission.
Options are fairly limited but then again, what could you possibly want to change? You can toggle the sound or change your controls. This is where the game has a shortcoming. Your only controls are left and right flippers.
Well, unfortunately for the iPAQ-ers out there, this causes a problem. At least for me. I found myself wanting to press both flippers at the same time just to make sure I wasn’t going to miss the ball, but then only one flipper worked! This is because the iPAQ can only interpret one button press at a time. It would be nice if you were given the option of using a button that turned both flippers on. Three buttons could be used: one for left, one for right and one for both.
[Editor's note: Unfortunately, the iPAQ's action button (the centre of the joypad), which could have been pressed simultaneously with another hardware key, cannot be used either.]
The game itself is pretty entertaining. Great sound and graphics capture your attention and the difficulty of accomplishing your mission keeps you playing. After launching the ball, you have to start hitting the ball in specific locations to open secret rooms and get loads of points. I played for quite a while and didn't really manage to get a feel for being able to direct the ball. As long as I kept the ball in play, I felt like I was doing well!
Mechanics in this game were pretty good. Every once in a while you’ll see the ball move a little awkwardly but, for the most part, collision detection is acceptable. One thing I did notice is that every time I launched the ball, it ended up in exactly the same location, no matter how much power I used, unless I barely tapped it. There are three columns at the top of the first level. Each time I launched the ball it went through the middle column. Even with full power it would stop at the middle column. It's a minor point, but not very realistic.
If you like pinball games, Bounty Hunter will be right up your alley. Even if you aren’t a pinball head, I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s not just a question of hitting the ball around randomly. The different missions are the key to keeping the playability fresh. It definitely takes some time to build up the points!
Overall, it’s a pretty decent game, but we aren’t talking about a ground-breaking game. After all, it’s about time somebody made a pinball game for the Pocket PC.
Bonus balls:
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Collision detection
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Great sound
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Graphics
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Interesting missions
Balls-ups:
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Even on the first level, missions are difficult
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Music becomes repetitive during long games
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Split-screen levels made keeping up with the ball difficult
Overall Score: 7/10
Many thanks to Hexacto for providing us with our review copy.
You may wish to search for more reviews of games from Hexacto. Alternatively, you can view all the reviews written by Shaun Beane.
