The reality of the Action 52 is that if you can shit out fifty-two games, a small handful of them might be worth playing*. Billy Bob comes dangerously close to being a mediocre Prince of Persia clone, and once you have the patience to clear the first two rooms, you might get sucked in a little bit. Should you reach the final room, make that nearly impossible jump and go through the door, you will encounter, I think, the best bug in the entire Action 52 cartridge. For me, this is exactly what has made this whole thing so special. I won't ruin it here, but it's in the video below.
There's no attempt at a plot, so it must go something like this: Billy Bob appears to be exploring a decrepit tomb, looking for his spitoon and his lady friend, Lurlee, but mostly his spitoon. Not good enough? OK, let's see what we can do.. Billy Bob needs to go from the left to the right. Let's move on.
The game screens are seemingly designed to be as frustrating as they could be. Falling slightly further than you are tall is sure to kill you. It's not that it happens intentionally, it's that it happens when you reach the edge of the screen. If you happen to be holding right when game draws the next play field, you will probably throw yourself right off the edge of a single tile just before a huge pit you couldn't see right in front of your face and die.
Oddly, character movement in Billy Bob feels great; the character sprints with a quickness not seen in any other game on the cartridge. Jumping, however, is the snag. Similar to Ooze and other Action 52 platformers before this, holding the jump button prevents you from moving forward, so you have to try to tap it just hard enough to register a press. The game also employs running jumps, meaning you will need to take leaps of faith starting on the previous screen to make jumps you can't even see yet.
While the spikes that randomly appear only drop from the ceiling when Billy Bob moves underneath them, the bricks are constantly falling. Often, you can be in the process of climbing, and a brick will appear, drop and land right on your head, and there wasn't anything you could do to abort your action. Completing the two stages isn't impossible, it's just improbable; you're more likely to give up after your third game is ended by missed jumps and poorly timed brick drops.
Any ROM hackers out there? You might want to dive in and see if Billy Bob has any "lost" stages!
Also, why does the B button fire your pistol? There isn't a single thing to shoot.
Since 2007, Gamescrap has brought you the the worst video games, game commercials, game merchandise, and gaming moments ever to grace the industry. No matter if it's a beloved classic or the next hot thing, no bad game is safe from the horrors of the Gamescrap heap.
Since 2007, Gamescrap has brought you the the worst video games, game commercials, game merchandise, and gaming moments ever to grace the industry. No matter if it's a beloved classic or the next hot thing, no bad game is safe from the horrors of the Gamescrap heap.