Bumpy Grumpy

Played a ton of this at MAGFest (Music and Games festival) at the start of this year, and have wanted a home version ever since. I can't wait to squeeze in a game of Bumpy Grumpy every morning before I drive to my actual job.

I played this game repeatedly at the Louisville Arcade Expo in 2023 and 2024, and have been waiting for this to finally be released to Steam. I am not disappointed! Snappy arcade action, heavy replay value, and a retro feel that is absolutely spot-on. Big fan of the developer, and happy to support Mommy's Best Games. Easy to pick up, a challenge to master.

good game if you like videogames!

[i]Disclaimer: I playtested this game and received a key for it in the process.[/i] Mommy's Best Games' latest tongue-in-cheek arcade-era tribute features its most relatable scenario yet: a varied and endless array of awful drivers is making you late for work, and your only hope of overcoming this collective blight on the morning commute is to embrace the darkness and become a greater road hazard than they are. Streak past your unwitting adversaries like a bat out of hell, mercilessly cutting off as many as possible (multiple times apiece at that), just plain knocking the most hapless specimens out altogether; there is, after all, no good or evil when it comes to corporate-mandated punctuality. As with its cabinet-bound inspirations the controls are about as simple as you could ask for - up, down, accelerate, brake - but unlike most such relics the layout of enemies and powerups is randomized each credit you play, so you can't just keep popping in spare change and eventually memorize your way to a perfect run: depending on what manner of experience you're craving this will be either the game's greatest strength or its most irritating downside, for while this setup ensures that every session is different and keeps the emphasis on rapid-fire moment-to-moment split-second reactions, it's also undeniably frustrating when, despite the game's suitably zippy controls and forgiving collision detection, a rival driver still manages to [i]perfectly[/i] weasel his way directly in between you and a vital powerup (particularly your scattered work papers, which determine the ending you get). Beyond that point, however, if you're able to push past the occasional "ugh, seriously?" fender bender and build up a more instinctive feel for how to handle the mercurial hazards in your path, getting on a tear just plain feels great: squeaking out of seemingly impossible scrapes, adjusting your eyes to better spot oncoming collectibles, knowing when to slow down for an intersection or just blaze on through it at the last second (and you definitely want to wreak as much highway havoc as possible, as it means more points and thus extra lives to work with), once things start to become second nature the "just one more run" urges become fiendishly hard to resist, especially since a full playthrough is so brief. Seeking out more and more unconventional ways to boost your score and maybe even impress your boss in the end can keep you glued to the screen in a way you might not expect from such a simple game. Dollop an era-appropriate presentation (including a special display option for diehards who want to run the game in a genuine arcade cabinet) and even a bit of lore about the "original" developers on top and you can feel genuine affection for the foundational early 80's classics present in every pixel; as in the old days this title can and will sometimes have you groaning when it seemingly steals a life from you, but methinks just about anyone with the mindset to add this one to their library will get plenty of value just in terms of the quarters they would otherwise pump into a bona fide machine way back when (and if you're not quite sure, just try the demo). Boot this up and pour one out for the bygone neighborhood diner or laundromat that set you on the wild, hazard-strewn path that has, at last, led you here.

Very great game even if you try to run a home arcade, neat controls, lots of great optional attributes from bezel art to cheats to CRT Wells Garner inspired screen layout & what not, also very true to its 80s era coin eating arcade inspiration, even though this has a fake lost media of which I do not follow any of at all, other than that this is really great & I would REALLY like to see this game make it to Nintendo Switch, Xbox & PlayStation consoles sometime very soon! I RECOMMEND THIS GAME TO ALL ARCADE FANS 100%

Extremely charming and fast arcade game, with lots of wonderful pixel art and sense of speed. If you like score chasing and many point opportunities, this is the game for you! It's also not that difficult to play at your own pace and reach the ending, too. My only downside is because there are so many sound cues for passing, power-ups, extra lives, and whatnot, the developers forgot to include some actually good music. What's here is for interstitials only, there's no gameplay music which I thought was a real shame. It's evocative of that time, at least. 8/10, not my favorite of recent Arcade games I've tried like Annalynn or Raindrop Sprinters, but very solid and fun overall.