Boppin' By Accursed Toys

HOW TO PLAY BOPPIN'

Use the joypad, joystick, keyboard, or mouse to move Yeet or Boik left or right.

Yeet and Boik will not fall off of any edge.

You can move up or down by using elevators. An elevator can be called to you by holding the action button while moving the joypad, mouse, or pressing a key in the direction of the elevator. This will call the elevator.

Once on an elevator, you can ride it by moving up, or down within the limit of the elevator's range.

The goal of Boppin' is to match Bopping blocks. To do this you must first pick up a block.

Walk over the Sources, the locations where you first appear, to pick up Bopping blocks as they appear. Your character will automatically pick up the Bopping block.

To throw Bopping blocks, stop, hold down the action button, and then move the controller in the direction you wish to throw, either left, or right. You can waggle the controller left or right before you throw. To actually throw a Bopping block, you must release the action button. The block is thrown only when you release the button.

You can only throw diagonally up left, or diagonally up right. This means that you have to play Boppin' a bit like pool or billiards...the secret is in finding angles to bounce blocks off of.

Beware of floors, though, some are deadly and a Bopping block that hits a deadly floor will cost you.

If you don't like your current Bopping block, there are two ways to deal with it. The best is to return to your Source, and then stop and pull straight down with the controller. As long as you have points left in your score to spend (points are like money and power in Boppin' and you really need them for the final battle) you can exchange your currently carried block for a new one. If you do not have enough points left, then you will lose a spare life. If you have no spare lives left to spend...well. Alternatively, you can get rid of a block by deliberately failing; by making an incorrect match, or by, if it is possible on a given screen, tossing the block off the level into the sky. Of course, in doing this, you will lose a life. When you lose all lives, you can continue, but you do so with zero points. Not happy.

You can do more than throw blocks, you can also push them. To push a block, hold the action button and move in the direction of the block to knock it one tile away.

Pushing blocks is very, very useful, because you can build patterns of blocks to generate massive scores.

When two identical blocks, one on the screen (which can be pushed), and one you are carrying and can throw (you can't push throwing blocks) are thrown together so that they hit, they annihilate each other, in a process called Boppulation.

If unalike blocks are hit together, then you lose a spare life. Not good. If you have no spare lives, well.

Basic Boppulation generates points, but for really fantastic points, you need to free monsters. Monsters are hidden within patterns. There are four special patterns, that when completed with a thrown block, release a monster for massive points.

These are the four Bop Patterns, as shown by their inventor, your enemy in the game, Sweety Hunnibunz.

Now the key here is that just pushing these patterns together won't work: you need to leave an empty space to toss a throwing block into. Only a thrown Bopping block completing such a pattern can free a monster through Boppulation.

If you can release monsters by completing Bop Patterns, you will earn astonishing amounts of points. These points can be multiplied if you are lucky enough to discover the bizarre and secret Mystery Spot...a strange zone that, if your thrown block flies through, casts everything onscreen into solid gold.

Why do you need points? Well, aside from gaining extra spare lives from them, they serve as a direct meter of how much power you possess when fighting the final battle in the game. The higher the points you have, the higher your combat rating. But note...if you lose all your lives and have to continue, you also start over from zero points.

If you were able to solve all the screens before the final battle without ever having to continue, you could theoretically beat the boss in a couple of seconds. Good luck.

Oh, one more thing about such matters: if you can clear a level without any loss of player lives at all, and collect every prize and goodie on the screen (yes, there are bonus point prizes to collect, look for them) then you will get a PERFECT! on that level.

Why would you want to do that?

You get to wear shades, man. Shades.

Now it has been mentioned that Boppin' is a bit like billiards, because of the need to make banking shots off of walls and the like. There is more to things than that. There are Refractors.

A Refractor is a device that instantly alters the trajectory of a thrown Bopping block from diagonal to cardinal...to a straight line, up, down, left or right. Refractors can even trap blocks between them, requiring you to either return to the Source and pull down to get a new block altogether...or...perhaps find a way to recapture the lost block.

Many puzzles depend on a clever use of Refractors.

Solving levels in Boppin' is a very diverse thing. Some levels are simple, boppulate the blocks and get out of there. Some are like adventures, and you have to find a path through, or solve a maze, or figure out what is a prize, and what is a block. Some levels require timing challenges...oh, no clock is ever used, but you will see what is meant. Some levels offer you a seemingly easy screen filled with cheap isolated blocks, but are in reality a chance to push blocks to form a high-scoring Bop Pattern. Some levels demand that you solve them in a certain order, or you will be boned. You may need to Restart a level ("R" key, or use the second action joypad button, mouse button or action key for a nice restart menu) to finish it if you mess up. There are more than 150 levels, and no two are the same. Unique levels. Some are just plain weird, some are stranger than that. Before you think any level is too simple, look again...there is often an opportunity for high scoring in even the simplest looking level. And some levels...demand that you change the way you percieve the very game itself. Keep these things in mind.

An important note about Boppin' physics.

The physics of the Boppin' game universe are unlike earthly physics. You need to understand that. Boppin' physics are more like cartoon physics, in that falling objects can be persuaded to 'forget' that they are falling if they can be sufficiently distracted. A sufficient distraction could be a trapped Bopping block bouncing back and forth that incidentally 'catches' or interrupts the falling block on the way down. Keep that weirdness in mind deep into the game.

And lastly, a few keyboard controls for that complete 'Whoop-te-do' feeling.

Yes, there are some cheats for the game. A lot in fact. Some are revealed in the program itself, if you prowl around the various areas enough. You never know what you might find in there, if you look.

The same is true of the game itself.

And yes, there is a secret special super ending to the game, as if four...or was it five... simple endings were not enough.

The special ending is really, really good. You'll know you got it if you get to learn where Sweety Hunnibunz originally came from.

Lastly, a note about death.

If you run out of spare lives in the game, and you lose your last life, then, you die. You can die as Yeet, or you can die as Boik.

The cool thing is that Yeet and Boik, being digital samurai heroes of the people, do not wait for some errant scrap of code to kill them, they commit seppuku. Boik goes for the traditional stuff, and uses a classy Japanese sword, but Yeet is more...modern... about such things. Try to see both.

Yes, this is a puzzle game with ritual suicide in it.

We think that is something special.

Jenniverse.com