Hover Bovver
Hover Bovver, developed by Jeff Minter and published by Llamasoft in 1983.
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Player's Review
"A totally original arcade game for C64 featuring outstanding graphics and a sound track created by a professional Piano Wizard. Gordon Bennet has borrowed his neighbour's FLYMO lawnmower. Mow your way through as many of the 16 lawns as you can before the pursuing neighbour retrieves his mower. Set your dog onto the neighbour to help you out of tight spots and don't annoy the Gardener. Try not to plough through the neat flower beds or overheat your mower!"
An oddball title that many c64 owners had in their collection one way or another. Who would have though lawn mowing, One of the least fun chores would inspire a game. Whilst normalised now with every task you can think of having a simulator game , hover Bovver was unique in its time.
There are Sixteen lawns to mow and you can start on any level between one and eight, Lets call those easy mode as Nine to Sixteen are notably more difficult as you have to mow through flowers which spawns the wrath of the gardener! You control Gordon who had the bright idea to steal the neighbours mover and fly it around other folks lawn, On each screen you ideally just mow the grass whilst being chases by the mowers owner. You can call upon the dog any time to frighten him off. Excessive moving will cause the mower to overheat as will getting caught by the dog which must then cool down. Mowing flowers will quickly overheat the mower and as mentioned spawn the Gardner who will chase for the mower.
The game challenge comes from evading the neighbour who will chase you all over, only blocked by hedges. The gardener wont want to trample on the flowers. They move quickly so some strategy is required to try and trap them behind the hedges or get the dog in between them and you. It gets very tricky when those obstacles get much less as you progress through the levels. You only get three chances as I guess not many on the street own fly mows. To keep the neighbours at bay you get a limited amount of dog control energy. once its gone, there is nothing stopping the dog or neighbour from getting you.
Overall, a quirky and initially somewhat fun to play and fairly well presented for a 1983 C64 game. It only takes a few screens though before the game feels unfair especially with how quickly the neighbour and dog can move. It is a minor blessing though that when you lose a life that you get to continue where you left off. Once all Sixteen levels are complete the game loops at a higher difficulty resulting in a quick death.
An oddball title that many c64 owners had in their collection one way or another. Who would have though lawn mowing, One of the least fun chores would inspire a game. Whilst normalised now with every task you can think of having a simulator game , hover Bovver was unique in its time.
There are Sixteen lawns to mow and you can start on any level between one and eight, Lets call those easy mode as Nine to Sixteen are notably more difficult as you have to mow through flowers which spawns the wrath of the gardener! You control Gordon who had the bright idea to steal the neighbours mover and fly it around other folks lawn, On each screen you ideally just mow the grass whilst being chases by the mowers owner. You can call upon the dog any time to frighten him off. Excessive moving will cause the mower to overheat as will getting caught by the dog which must then cool down. Mowing flowers will quickly overheat the mower and as mentioned spawn the Gardner who will chase for the mower.
The game challenge comes from evading the neighbour who will chase you all over, only blocked by hedges. The gardener wont want to trample on the flowers. They move quickly so some strategy is required to try and trap them behind the hedges or get the dog in between them and you. It gets very tricky when those obstacles get much less as you progress through the levels. You only get three chances as I guess not many on the street own fly mows. To keep the neighbours at bay you get a limited amount of dog control energy. once its gone, there is nothing stopping the dog or neighbour from getting you.
Overall, a quirky and initially somewhat fun to play and fairly well presented for a 1983 C64 game. It only takes a few screens though before the game feels unfair especially with how quickly the neighbour and dog can move. It is a minor blessing though that when you lose a life that you get to continue where you left off. Once all Sixteen levels are complete the game loops at a higher difficulty resulting in a quick death.
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