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Boulder Dash 40th Anniversary brings us the classic 3 original titles, plus a stack of new levels with a splash of fresh paint.
Get round each level in the time alloted, collect all the gems and find the exit. Doing the first bit is hard enough, as in one particular run, I was on course to get them all in the original game’s level 3, but as I almost ran out of time, it caused me to sprint, make a mistake and… DEAD!
Further attempts to complete it after that took FOREVER as I just kept making endless mistakes! GRRR!
For example, when you go to move one space, the game moves you on TWO! Then a boulder hits you on the head and…. AAARRRGHH!!! ….It can’t be me rushing too much and making mistakes, surely?? š
However, one gameplay ‘feature’ really does get my goat and it’s when boulders pass through walls and turn into crystals… because if they pass through TWO walls, they disappear… I think. I just know that I forget the precision aspects of this when I come to it, particularly due to the game’s frenetic nature, and I don’t get enough gems for the level, and have to start again. D’oh.
Just one gameplay issue I’ve had with this. Even though I have a beefy PC, for some reason, with the game in fullscreen, it plays slightly jerky, as you can see from the gameplay below. I’ve got some more gameplay coming, but that’s all with the game windowed, and it runs perfectly fine. Not sure why it’s gone a bit off like that.
Boulder Dash is fun from the off, and has the “one more go” aspect in spades. So, it’s well worth a purchase and will give you plenty of excuses to avoid all those Bank Holiday chores!
But before you do that, here’s how busy it will keep you: As well as the three original games, there’s a ton of extras to get into, including fan levels such as Danger Dash, and this list of approved levels is growing all the time – And if all this isn’t enough, there’s even a level editor!:
- Boulder Dash I (Original game): 20 levels
Boulder Dash II: Rockford’s Revenge (Original game): 20 levels
Boulder Dash III (Original game): 20 levels
New stuff:
- Tutorial: 20 levels
Obsidan Depths: 20 levels
Crystal Heaven: 20 levels
Catchy Diamonds: 20 levels
Shifting Journey: 20 levels
Complex Dash: 20 levels
Danger Dash – Fan Levels: 20 levels
Arno’s World – Fan Levels: 20 levels
Brain Delicacy – Fan Levels: 20 levels
Thanks to our friends at BBG Entertainment for the review code for this game.
Boulder Dash 40th Anniversary is out now on Steam, and the respective online stores for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 8/10
Important info:
- Developer: BBG Entertainment
- Publisher: BBG Entertainment
- Players: single-player
PC specs:
CPU: AMD RYZEN 9 7950X3D
Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E CARBON WIFI AMD X670 S AM5 DDR5 PCIe 5.0 4x M.2 2.5GbE AMD EXPO™ ATX
RAM: 64GB (2x32GB) Corsair DDR5 Vengeance RGB PC5-44800 (5600Mhz)
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX NITRO+ 24GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing RDNA3 6144 Streams
1st Storage Drive: 2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 (2280) PCIe 4.0 (x4) NVMe SSD TLC V-NAND 7450MB/s Read 6900MB/s
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.