BounceBack
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| BounceBack

Who doesn't love a story about a tiny hero finding his true calling in life? The journey to self-discovery trope is always good for tugging at heart-strings, and it's the direction that Minis title BounceBack takes.

This title from a group of Sheffield Hallam University students is an extremely well-realised puzzler that's largely brought down by poor presentation.

Moonshine

You control a small bouncy ball who comes to realise that he's actually from the moon. With the help of his Tri-Hards spacemen friends he attempts to collect enough moondust to bounce all the way back up there.

On each level you begin with no bouncing ability at all. As you collect moondust you begin to bounce higher and higher, until you're able to reach the goal.

Along the way you also need to hit switches to open doors, use extra springy surfaces to bounce over killer obstacles, and navigate lifts and the like. It's classic puzzle gaming through and through.

And you're not alone on your quest. By hitting the shoulder buttons you can switch to another character with its own separate special abilities.

In this way, puzzles really open themselves up to a huge range of possibilities, and working your way through the game's several dozen levels is enjoyable throughout.

Cheesy

While the gameplay is solid, the presentation brings it all down somewhat.

The visuals are incredibly tame, giving the whole thing a very amateurish feel. We also managed to break a number of levels, either by moving through obstacles or by getting stuck in them.

On top of this, the sound effects are rather irritating, with each character spouting out the same one line every time you switch to it. After half an hour, both our eyes and our ears were calling for a time-out.

Even so, as an evening's entertainment for your PSP or PS Vita BounceBack is a relatively good option - especially if you're pining for a clever puzzler.

BounceBack

An impressive puzzler from Sheffield students, BounceBack just needed some visual attention to reach the loftiest heights
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.