Bobby Is Going Home

Bobby Is Going Home is an early platformer game released in 1983 for the Atari 2600. It was developed by Bit Corp., who made other games on the system such as Snail Against Squirrel, Mission 3000 A.D., Dancing Plate, Space Tunnel, Mr. Postman, Phantom Tank, & Open, Sesame!.

Plot
Leaping, leaping and leaping! Always happy, always cheerful in little Bobby colored world. Let not the rolling stones and naughty ponds bother you: keep away from those troublesome birds and chickens. Let not the butterfly and ugly bat annoy you: even that extremely tricky bridge can't stop you. Why not walk along the river side to enjoy the green field and blue sky. In the song of joy, we shall help little Bobby to go home.

Why It's Going Home

 * 1) Great, & impressive graphics for the system. The backgrounds are well varied & filled to the brim with cool little details. There's even an attempt at a day-and-night cycle when you're getting closer to the destination(Bobby's house), which is really impressive!
 * 2) * In the first background, there's a scrolling part of the background with a yacht sailing across the pond while there are red & blue mountains near it.
 * 3) * Another background features a green train coming towards a black & red train station. While stationary, it has nice detail with the puff of smoke coming from the train & a cloud moving around.
 * 4) * Sometimes the first background is modified to make it look like a car is driving through either a road, or some tough-to-go-through snow and the mountains are of different colors.
 * 5) Like Manic Miner, there is both sound effects, & music in-game. Unlike Manic Miner though, the in-game music is actually of good quality & is also longer. Sometimes the music will go faster in more exciting situations, or slower for when you're getting close to home, making it one of the first instances of Variable Mix ever.
 * 6) * When you finally complete the level, a different tune plays, which also sounds good for the system.
 * 7) Highly enjoyable gameplay that's a mix between Pitfall!, & Super Mario Bros.. You go through multiple non-scrolling screens in a single level trying to get home while avoiding multiple hazards & enemies. There's also some strategy that is needed in some areas such as when you have to cross the bridge that stretches & shrinks.
 * 8) Good movement control of Bobby. You move really well & it doesn't feel stiff at all. If you want to stop, you can in an instant.
 * 9) * Plus you can control your jumps. Plus, you can jump again if you keep holding down the one button. Reminder, this came out before Super Mario Bros. by 2 years. This also makes Manic Miner even more inexcusable.
 * 10) Lots of replay value despite the difficulty switches having no effect on the actual game itself.
 * 11) It was one of the earliest Taiwanese games to be released in North America officially before Color Dreams & American Video Entertainment officially distributed Sachen games(though those games weren't licensed by Nintendo in any region).

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) The jumping noise can be somewhat annoying as it interrupts one of the 2 channels used to make the in-game music.

Trivia
The in-game music is "What a Friend we have in Jesus", whereas the ending music is a remix of the 19th century song Home Sweet Home. There's no actual religious theme in the game though, suggesting that the programmer probably put it in because he/she just thought it sounded like something you'd hear on your trip back home.

Reception
The game has gotten mixed to positive reviews throughout the years of its existence, though has mostly been ignored outside of the Atari 2600 fanbase.

Videos
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