Here we are with another modern retro game, on a new platform based on a retro console. Confused yet?

So, Bounty Bob Strikes Back! is the sequel to the classic Miner 2049er. Though released for the Atari 5200 back in the 80s, it never made it to Atari’s more powerful 7800 console, at least until recently. Playable on original 7800 hardware as well as Atari’s 2600+ and 7800+ consoles, is this single screen platformer worth picking up for us retro game fans who have the consoles to play it on?

It pains me to say it, but I don’t think it’s worth the current asking price, but let’s look at why that is.

The objective of Bounty Bob Strikes Back! is to ‘paint’ every platform in a level by walking over it, with mutated beasts able to kill you with one hit if you so much as go near them. That is, unless you grab a pickup, which can be just about anything from a pistol to a cake; when you do, the monsters turn temporarily vulnerable, allowing you to get rid of them by simply walking into them.

Paint all the surfaces in a level and you’ll go to the next one. Sounds easy, right?

Well, it would be, but if you fall off a platform it’s an instant death. Even the smallest of distances: death. The manual claims you can fall a certain distance without dying, but I haven’t found a small enough drop that wouldn’t kill me yet.

It’s this and the nature of the game’s numerous extra elements, such as unresponsive hydraulic lifts, that makes Bounty Bob Strikes Back! an incredibly frustrating experience. It’s a game that has a certain amount of charm in its old school design, and a refreshing amount of flexibility with its options, but ultimately it’s just too punishing, and not in a way that really feels fair, to be much fun.

You can buy Bounty Bob Strikes Back! from Amazon here, the Atari 7800+ console here, and the Atari 2600+ console here.