While there are many classic games that I have fond memories of and still enjoy revisiting, not everything from the olden days manages to click with my personal sensibilities. One such title that I’m well aware was very popular back in its day was Boulder Dash. As it went through multiple sequels over the years I’d periodically check in with it to see if something had changed, but it just was never something I enjoyed. The good news for its fans though is that the series is back once again on Switch, this time to celebrate its 40th Anniversary.

For the uninitiated, though it has the looks of an old arcade-style contemporary of the likes of the classic Dig Dug, this is a puzzle game through and through. Your goal in each level will be to collect enough gemstones that you’ll open the exit, and very quickly you’ll come to understand that pulling that off can be challenging. Every clump of dirt you clear near the game’s namesake boulders has the potential to send them cascading down and squishing you. While normally you’d just concern yourself with dirt directly below boulders, you’ll need to be worried about stacked boulders, and the fact that they’ll come at you when you remove their bracing to the sides as well. You’ll also have enemies to contend with, but at the end of the day the real threat are all of those rocks waiting to crush you or block your way. 

As a puzzle game, this system works on a general level, and there aren’t many games specifically like it. I can respect the diversity it offers, but I haven’t gotten to this specific game’s worst problem, and that’s the controls. While the fact that you’ll be working against the clock does create the need for some urgency, your movement speed and the general instability of it absolutely work to make the game far harder to play and enjoy than they should. Given the need to be very deliberate in the way you knock things out, in order to avoid catastrophe in some way, the lack of an appropriate means of control to match that need is pretty odd and somewhat inexcusable. It’s really just a weird problem to have, stacked onto a core gameplay experience that may have novel appeal, but can still get pretty tedious after a few levels to begin with.