Description:
Bounce! is based on the Microsoft game, Jezzball, from the days of Windows 3.1 and 95. This is not an entirely accurate clone, as it has a few more features added and is missing a few notable "features" as well.
This game isn't particularly hard to learn once you understand the concept. The object of the game is to clear as much space on the board by building walls. When an area has been walled off and there are no balls left in it, the area will be cleared. Your wall builder consists of two side, each going in the opposite direction of the other. Everytime a ball collides with one of the sections of your unfinished wall, you will lose a live, and that section of your unfinished wall will disappear. If no balls collide with your wall before it reaches either the board edge, or a section that is already completed, your wall will be completed and added to the cleared sections.
To progress to the next level, you must clear a certain percentage of the board. This percentage can be changed to 75 or 85 on the options scree, but defaults to 80 when you first begin. Each time you progress to the next level, you will get one more life, and a ball will be added to the board. The original Jezzball game would not let you progress past level 50, but Bounce! will continue to add balls until you can't clear enough screen to move on.
Because of the limitations of the PocketPC, which this game was designed for, I couldn't use the standard mouse buttons to change wall directions and start building walls. So, in place of the right button on the mouse to switch directions, there is a button with arrows indicating the current direction on the blue panel below the board. To switch directs, simply tap this button. To start a wall, simply tap on the screen where you want the bar to start.
There are 4 indicators in the blue panel at the bottom of the screen. These indicate howmany lives you have remaining, how much time you have left, the percentage of the board you have cleared, and your score. They are labelled L, T, C, and S, respectively. There are also 4 buttons on the blue panel aside from the direction switch. These are the New Game, Options, Pause, and Exit buttons. The New Game and Exit buttons do just what they say. The Pause button will pause and unpause the game. To unpause the game, you can also tap anywhere on the board. The options button will pop up the options screen.
