Backyard Bounce review
Click Gamer love their 2D physics based puzzlers, and after the success of Angry Birds who can blame them? “If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it” is not a mantra for nothing, and once again Clickgamer have provided a satisfyingly rewarding puzzler that will have you shooting hoops on the way to school, work, benefits office and anywhere else where you have a spare five minutes to play this gloriously digital rendition of childhood favourite – Mousetrap.
While the aim is to simply dunk your basketball into the hoop, physics often gets in the way as well as bowling balls, mallets, ramps, springboards and of course the scourge of bowling – dominoes. Every level begins with a mysterious disembodied hand placing some of your inventory, seemingly with frightening purpose, all over the screen. With your remaining pieces you must set up the mousetrap style course with the sole aim of guiding the basketball to the hoop. With an ever increasing inventory and a scoring system that rewards you not to use it all, Backyard Bounce is a fantastic brain teaser where every play makes collecting the final whistle all the more enticing and more rewarding when completed.
There are three whistles in every level and whilst you score points for collecting each one, doing so using your entire inventory will not land you the coveted three stars. The fewer items you use the higher the chance of netting a top score.
The items can be placed anywhere and each item is well rendered and unmistakable. The items can also be rotated by degrees to fine tune the run. Even though you can float objects in mid air, as soon as the basketball is ‘live’, physics is king and the cause and effect rule is perfectly implemented and suitably realistic.
The background art is perfectly suited to the zone it represents; graphite and grunge dominate the junkyard, while barns and blue skies await you in the barnyard. Three yards are available from the start and between them they provide 72 levels of fiendish physics and more are promised. Fed up of flinging malcontent birds across the horizon? Slam some dunks instead; it’s just as gratifying and safer for pigs.
