Boulder Dash Forum

Did anybody already buy the latest Boulder Dash 40th Anniversary? How is the game play and game mechanics? Is it worth buying or does it differ that much that is not worth playing?

The classic trio still has a few things that purists will nitpick at, but the modern experience overall has a lot of polish closer to the original game, in terms of object and enemy behavior. My only gripe is that the amoeba tends to be a little faster than usual in some cases. But I'm sure there's still going to be work refining it

Would you consider it a worthy successor or does it feel like a clone - close but without the real Boulder Dash feeling?

I say it's the closest that it's ever gotten to the original experience. Feels familiar, but also fresh, without trying to be what it is representing.

Sounds promising.

Can this weird score indication when collecting diamonds be switched off? Looks awful and distracts a lot.

I got the game and played it for a while.

First I noticed that there is no possibility to define keys for controlling the game. Never seen a game where I can't define the keys by myself. I'm not a big fan of gamepads for some games, Boulder Dash belongs to the group for me. So keyboard is my first choice.
Second it's not possible to remove the score indication for each collected diamond. It blocks the view and is totally unnecessary.

While playing I noticed that the steering is a bit woolly. It's not that precise and instantaneous as the original game. It's not that bad as it sounds but it's noticeable. Maybe this is also the reason why I think that some accidents happen more often than necessary.

It's a nice idea that there is a cone of light around the player and the rest of the cave is darker - but the rest is a bit too dark. At least for my eyes it's hard to see what's behind the cone of light.

A big difference to the C64 game is that there is no random pushing delay for the boulders anymore. Feels a bit weird. But this does not break the game, of course.

Also there is no variable game speed. The player is always walking the same speed. Also does not break the game but would make it feel more authentic, puzzle caves could use slower speed, action caves higher speed.

The cave editor is nice but very spartan if you are used to the GDash editor. But almost all necessary options are there. I think the cave editor is the most important part of this new game as it could mean fan games and a longer life span of the game itself. But I couldn't find to make whole games with a set of caves - only single caves to play. It could be that I've missed something.

All in all I think it's a nice new Boulder Dash, definitely way better than the last few official Boulder Dashes as it's closer to the original game. Not necessarily the highlight I was waiting for but certainly better than some clones. In my opinion it's a nice game and it's worth the 20 bucks if you like a nice presentation and some fresh ideas.

Rebinding has been one of the several gripes of players of this game, and I think they are working on a way to hopefully let that be possible.