Ludography
53/100
Players18 ratings
Paperboy 2 cover

1991 · Tengen · Action · Arcade

Paperboy 2

Timed Nintendo exclusive

You're a paper boy (or papergirl). Get on your bicycle. Avoid obstacles on the road, such as dogs, cars, and basically everything you can imagine. Hell, some people shoot cannon balls at you! And you'd better be very sure to only throw papers at the right houses!

Released
1991
Platforms
AmigaAmstrad CPCAtari STGame BoyGame GearMS-DOSNESSNESSega GenesisZX Spectrum
Genres
ActionArcadeRacing
Developers
Tengen
Publishers
Mindscape
Series
Paperboy
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionComedy
Country
United States
Languages
English
Entry
#2 in Paperboy

About

Paperboy 2 is an action video game, the sequel to the arcade video game Paperboy. It was released in 1991–1992 for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, MS-DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, and ZX Spectrum. While Paperboy debuted in arcades and was subsequently ported to personal computers and consoles, the sequel was only released for home systems.

Keywords

  • ghosts
  • mummy
  • female protagonist
  • dog
  • 8-bit
  • bonus stage
  • pig
  • clowns
  • cheat code
  • sega channel
  • sports cars

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game was much like the original: the player controls a paperboy (or papergirl) who must navigate a series of obstacles, such as tires rolling down a driveway while a car is being repaired, or strange houses like a haunted house, while trying to deliver the morning paper to various customers on a street (though unlike its predecessor, papers had to be delivered to houses on both sides of the street). Like the original, the game is renowned for its difficulty.

There are four specific actions that can be taken somewhere in the middle of each stage that reward the player with a front-page photo on the newspaper afterwards. Such actions included breaking a window with a paper, where the next day's paper would read "Mysterious Vandalism Baffles Police", showing an angry policeman looking at broken windows. Others could be coming across a gas station being robbed and hitting the gunman with a paper behind his back, then having the next day's paper headlined with "Paperboy {Papergirl} Foils Armed Robbery" or seeing a runaway baby carriage and stopping it with a paper, and the forthcoming headline being "Girl {Boy} Saves Breakway Baby". Both heroic stories would show a happy policeman rewarding the paperboy with candy.

Reception

Among the four reviewers in Electronic Gaming Monthly, they described the Game Boy version of the game as suffering from the limitations of the size of the Game Boy's screen and the black and white graphics with two reviewers recommending it to fans of the original game. Ed Ricketts of Amiga Format gave the Amiga version a 44 percent rating. N-Force gave the NES version a 42 percent rating. Jonathan Gagnon of Game Players gave the Game Gear version a 5 out of 10.

Jonathan Davies of Super Play gave the SNES version a 29 percent rating. Brett Alan Weiss of AllGame gave the SNES version one and a half stars out of five. Total! gave the NES version 50 out of 100, criticizing its poor camera and controls, as well as the music and gameplay.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
SNES1 November 1991North America
MS-DOS31 December 1991Europe · North America 31 December 1991
NES31 December 1991North America
Amstrad CPC31 December 1992Europe
ZX Spectrum31 December 1992Europe
Sega Genesis31 December 1992North America · Brazil 15 April 1993
Amiga31 December 1992Europe

Editions and related releases

Follows
Paperboy
Ported as
Paperboy 2
Built on it
Paperboy 2

In the same series

Games like this

Collections7 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.