Re-Bounder is the 1987 sequel to the brilliant ball-bouncing game, Bounder. It was once again developed and published by Gremlin Graphics and this time features both horizontally and vertically-scrolling gameplay, whereas the previous game scrolled only vertically.

Viewing a series of platforms from overhead, the aim of the game is to move a bouncing ball along the upper level and to avoid falling into the abyss below.

Hitting hostile sprites deflates the ball, and when it’s completely deflated the ball explodes, losing a life. The ball’s level of inflation is represented by the health bar at the bottom/middle of the screen. Occasionally you can access Pump Stations by bouncing on top of them, and these allow you to re-inflate the ball by waggling the joystick.

There are bonus tiles that award points if you bounce into them, and also ability tiles that give your ball extra time in the air, or temporary invulnerability. Oh, and there are also tiles that will instantly kill you, or reverse the controls, which are not too good to land on! Another major obstacle are walls that you cannot bounce over and must go around.

One thing you can do, which you couldn’t in the first game, is fire lasers in order to clear away any hostile sprites buzzing around you. Later on you can also acquire and use different weapons.

At the end of each level there’s a flat area of tiles where you’ll then be faced with a boss battle. During these you must fire your weapon to try to damage the boss, which moves erratically, while avoiding the bullets fired at you. After beating the boss you’re then given a choice of different directions to go in to continue your mission.

Re-Bounder – like its predecessor – is a clever game, but again – just like the first Bounder – it’s also very difficult. While I have great respect for the concept and execution of this game (and the original Bounder), my brain struggles to deal with the gameplay. I find it difficult to judge where the ball is in the bouncing cycle, as well as keep an eye on the platform layout, leading me to almost play it blindly.

Re-Bounder is well-produced, extremely challenging, and a worthy sequel, but it’s also an acquired taste. Many will find it too difficult to contemplate spending much time on, but others will probably lap it up.

More: Re-Bounder on Moby Games
More: Re-Bounder on CSDb