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As a kid I had a Commodore 64C. Amongst the other classic games I played on a regular basis was a game called Miner 2049er.

I didn't know the "story" behind it, but it was a simple game. You were a miner-looking guy (especially relevant for my family, as a good number of my family were coal miners, and we lived in West Virginia at the time). Your goal was to walk on every little block of the ground, going up and down ladders and down chutes — all while jumping gaps.

Fall down a gap, and you died. Hit one of the little guys walking around, and you died — unless you had picked up a pickaxe first (and only for a few minutes).

Hey, I figured that was what dad and my uncle did at work!

Unfortunately for my nostalgia, the current mobile version of Miner 2049er ruins everything that was good and decent about that old game with one simple problem: the controls.

It starts simple enough. You play the original version — perhaps a bit easier — or the "modern" version with nicer graphics and chutes on the very first level.

OK.

The first thing I noticed was that the menus were a bit slow in reacting to input. More than once, even now, when I tried to exit out of the game, it instead rebounded to "More games ..." and launched me out to my Web browser. Frustrating.

Then into the game.

Second thing: You can't remap the controls.

Third thing: The controls are as follows: "d" to go left; "g" to go right; "f" to jump; "r" to climb a ladder.

If you look at the keyboard for a Blackberry 8700g, as is the device on which I played this, you'll see that the keys are tiny little things.

After a while, it wasn't that bad ... I got used to it. But I hit a stumbling block.

You see, to jump, you have to hit the button between the two movement buttons. The slightest hesitation can cause you to miss the jump and die. And with the placement of the controls, I find it nearly impossible to make consistent jumps and almost nearly impossible to reliably jump without contorting my hands into positions that cramp my hands and enflame my wrists.

In short, I can't play this game — thanks to the controls.

There are alternate controls: You can use the scrollwheel. Click it to jump. That's marginally better, though I found ladder-climbing more difficult when using it, and I still consistently couldn't get off the jumps.

That makes me a sad SeanMike.

If you're looking to get it ... I suggest getting the demo first. See if you can control it. If you can, hey, you've got a great nostalgic jumping puzzle kind of game to play!