The basic premise of Paperboy is you're a... well... Paperboy. This poor boy has been sentenced to the worst paper route in the world, as everything is trying to kill him. Dogs, RC cars, real cars, old ladies, guys pushing their legs in the air, Tornadoes, and the Grim Reaper want to make sure this kid never finishes his route. But don't worry, this kid is going in armed with... a bike. And some newspapers.

While avoiding all the obstacles, you need to actually deliver newspapers. Any house that isn't red is a customer, and you need to land a paper right on their doorstep, or for more points, right in the mailbox. Should you break a customer's window, or fail to deliver their paper at all, they will unsubscribe at the end of the level. The red houses belong to people that are NOT customers - you don't need to deliver a paper to them, but you also don't need to worry about breaking their windows. In fact, you earn points for it. Careful not to waste your ammo though, you only got so many newspapers - look out for a pile of newspapers you can use to refill your supply. These are the only power up in the game.

You start out on the first level - Monday - with half of the street as customers, and three lives. When you finish Monday, you will lose every customer whose window you broke or paper you failed to deliver. Should you deliver every paper correctly, you will actually GAIN a customer at the end of the day. Lose all your customers and you're fired. However, you are far more likely to lose your lives first, as hitting anything (or having something hit you) costs you a life straight away - lose all three and your paperboy will realize what a ridiculously hard job this is and quit.

There is a bonus round at the end of each level, where you can rack up quite a few points. Getting hit on the bonus area doesn't count as a life lost, but it will end your bonus round. Other than the extra lives you may obtain from gathering enough, the points have little meaning. Points were a gaming tradition from the arcade era that lasted into early home systems.

The controls are pretty smooth - the Paperboy moves left and right pretty easily, just watch out for the ramps in the sidewalk - the curb can't be crossed. You can also go faster or slower - faster makes it easier to outrun dangers behind you, but also harder to avoid those in front of you and it's tough aiming papers when you're zipping along like Sonic.

This game is actually very fun, and pretty addictive - it's just brought down by the difficulty. If you're an expert of Ghosts 'n' Goblins or Zelda II, than this might not seem so hard to you, but to everyone else, don't play this and expect to win. The ultimate goal is to finish an entire week and deliver the Sunday edition, but you deserve a medal if you even make it to Wednesday.

I actually red this entire review, it's pretty well written. Great job!

Anyway I can't agree with you more, this game is really difficult, I don't think I ever made it to Sunday but I did enjoy playing it regardless. It's honestly a must play and I would recommend this to pretty much anybody. The difficulty kind of what makes this fun and I like how you can pretty much damage anything and that there's consequences to your actions. The sequel to this game was great as well, considering it was just this game with a few more effects added in.