A small group of developers are currently hard at work on a promising new pinball-inspired platformer that will "soon" be receiving a demo for your Game Boy Color.
Buzz Bumper originally came to our attention over this past weekend after one of its developers, the programmer and writer Pearacidic (who you might know for his involvement with the McDonalds game Grimace's Birthday) posted a link to the game's itch.io page. And, looking after the images shared, it seems to be exactly what I look for in a modern Game Boy game.
Not only does it feature an adorable lead character and fantastic pixel art, but it also contains some genuinely exciting mechanics that seems to offer the player a bit more freedom than simply running, jumping, and spamming the attack button every time an enemy appears, containing a cool grappling hook item, as well as the ability to transform into a spinball.
Besides Pearacidic, the game is also the work of two other Game Boy developers: the artist and game designer BrittBrady and the musician and sound effects artist ZBW. Together, their initial plan had been to release its demo as part of the Game Boy Competition 2025, but the build ended up requiring a bit longer to polish, with Pearacidic telling us earlier today it will most likely release by Christmas or maybe even earlier (Halloween).
Here's the outline of the game's story:
"You play as Buzz Bumper, a reigning pinball master and a whiz on the flippers. One day, when testing a brand new digital pinball game, Buzz gets zapped by electricity, turning him into a pinball and transporting him into the cabinet himself! Within, King Pinball’s kingdom is being threatened by an evil Mad Scientist, Dr. Tentakel.
The evil doctor has introduced a virus into Planet Pinball, converting the King’s legions into twisted machinations and forcing its citizens to obey him instead. In order to return the world back to its peaceful self, Buzz will grapple, spin, and bounce his way to save Planet Pinball from certain doom!"
Speaking about the origin of the idea, BrittBrady, told us, "It was kind of a stepping stone process that got me to the idea [of doing a pinball-themed platformer]. I have made a lot of platformers and played a lot of platformers and at this point my design often seems to be focused on ways to keep the player off the ground as much as possible. I find combo mechanics that help keep you airborne really satisfying.
"I had a previous prototype with a boomerang where when you caught it it kicked you up in the air," he continued, "But then I thought what if you could turn into a ball and bounce off enemies. After trying that design I was like 'This is kinda like pinball'. However the mechanic combinations weren't super fluid. So, when we started Buzz Bumper, I wanted to try a grappling hook because I felt like it would be [better]. Once that mechanic idea was started I really wanted to lean into the pinball thing."
When we asked BrittBrady whether he had any influences he could share that had an influence on the project, he ended up telling us that he played "A lot of Sonic Spinball as a kid". However, Buzz Bumper isn't exactly a clone of that game. That's because whereas Sonic Spinball was a pinball game first-and-foremost with platforming elements within, Buzz Bumper is intended to be the "reverse of that", bringing pinball-style mechanics into a platforming format instead.
You can find out more information about the game here.