The Megadrive/Genesis version of Paperboy 2 (or Paperboy II, as the title screen shows) is a real surprise, because it seems to be an attempt by developer Tengen to actually create a real sequel to the Paperboy arcade game. This game doesn’t strictly follow the rather lacklustre template of the Mindscape version of Paperboy 2, but instead does its own thing, which IMHO makes it special.

Paperboy II on the Genesis was published by Tengen in North America in 1992, and by Tec Toy in Brazil in 1993, but doesn’t seem to have been released anywhere else. Which is a shame because it’s arguably the best version of the sequel available.

Playing as either a paperboy or a papergirl the aim is to deliver newspapers to subscribers on three increasingly more difficult streets over the span of three weeks. If you miss delivering to any subscribers (or damage their house) they’ll cancel their subscription, and if you lose all your subscribers before the end of the week you’ll get fired and the game will end. The same will also happen if you crash your bike too many times and lose all your lives.

The big difference in Paperboy 2 (compared to the first Paperboy) is that you can throw papers left or right, and the streets alternate directions, with vertical connections in-between and an assault course at the end of every day. The Genesis version also has a jump button, which the other ports don’t have, for jumping off piers on the assault course (in the other versions there are ramps, which this version doesn’t have, so you have to press jump to make it off them safely).

Unlike all the other versions of Paperboy 2, in this version you can choose which of the three streets (Easy Street, Middle Way and Hard Road) to play on from the main menu, which boosts the game’s longevity.

Compared to all the other versions of Paperboy 2, the Genesis version has better animation of the player characters, music and gameplay, and is in my opinion the best version of the game available. Maybe that’s because it was developed by Tengen and not by Mindscape? It seems that Tengen at least felt the need to make the game as good as it possibly could be, whereas Mindscape didn’t.

More: Paperboy 2 on Wikipedia