WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Bouncers

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Dynamix

Released: 1994

My unholy love for the Sega CD means that, even back in the day, I was pretty good at keeping up on the games released for the system. But I honestly had never even heard of Bouncers until years after the hardware was dead. When I learned there was another Dynamix game on the platform (Rise of the Dragon and Willy Beamish are both great), I was quite excited to check it out.

Bouncers is a strange and original take on a sports game. It's basically basketball without the players. Instead, you control one of a collection of anthropomorphic basketballs in one-on-one contests to see who can score the most points.

The catch is that you can't jump very high, and so must use your opponent to launch you to the basket if you want to score at all. It feels like an amalgamation of a sports game and a one-on-one fighter (which were hot back then).

To help you reach the basket there are also a collection of power ups that float across the court from time to time, though in my short play test I don't think I was able to grab any of them.

The concept is sort of neat, but the execution is atrocious. Each round basically boils down to a bouncing contest where it feels like you have very little control of your ball. Once he jumps the first time, you're at the mercy of the game as to where he goes and when he stops bouncing. And timing your jumps to launch off of your opponent feels almost impossible, as most of the time you'll end up launching them into the air instead.

Yeah, this game is pretty awful.