James Pond 2 Robocod (Second Review)

Title		James Pond 2 Robocod (Second Review)
Game Type	Platform
Players		1
HD Installable	Yes (With Patch)
Compatibility	All (With Patch)
Submission	Phil JN

Review
Ok, so the premise of the game is this. A cybernetically enhanced fish
called James has the task of entering the hundreds of screens of Toyland
to rescue Father Christmas from the Evil professor. A real game for the
intellectual intelligencia, no?

Never has a game with such a daft premise delivered sooooo much since the
days of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.

James Pond is wonderful.... Smooth scrolling platform gaming to the
X-Treme!! Nothing too taxing on the brain, and its difficulty curve was
honed to perfection, allowing 4 yr olds to play the first few screens
easily, and as they (or you) grew in confidence, you ventured further.

The format was synonymous with the Amiga. Screen hero needs to jump,
climb, travel, squash, beat up, eradicate the numerous baddies, climb
higher or deeper to eventually meet the end of level baddies (bosses) to
progress to the next level.

I took part in a survey recently where we asked a group of a couple of
hundred dedicated gamers what was the most important factor in a "Top
Game". All manner of theorists put forward the arguments for graphics,
sound, storyline, learning curves etc etc. But the obvious factor won with
a landslide.

Gameplay. Robocod had this in truckloads. It also had everything else,
which is why it won so many awards and sold so many copies. Graphically,
the cartoon renditions of Bouncing Teddy bears, floating dolls, evil
lollypops, crazy cadillacs, chocolate mountains, whirling dervishes
playing cards (ok ok you get the picture) were good enough to eat. The
soundtrack was so addictively cute and catchy that I`m sitting here as I
write this humming Robocod`s background theme in my head... "diddle-
diddle- dum....dum-dum-dum....diddle-diddle-dee..dee dee dee" Not bad
after 10 years eh? On the surface, this was a kids game. In reality, there
were probably more 25-50 year olds playing this game than any other age
group. It was a joystick twisting, leap-inducing, eyeball-satisfaction of
a game. And the developers knew this.# There was humour, there was pathos
(who cant help but feel a guilty sadness at having to do an atomic drop
with RoboCod`s titanium butt to squash a cute 'n' cuddly teddy who was
blocking your path?) and there were many puzzles and extras to find. If
you can imagine Super Mario with better graphics, or Sonic with puzzles
and toys and Santa Claus, you're halfway to getting what James Pond Robocod
was actually like to look at and play.

Oh...and finally...if you got to the end, it was very VERY satisfying
knowing you had thwarted the Evil professor by demolishing his HUUUUUGE
Snowman suit to release the incarcerated St. Nick and freeing all the toys
for the kids at Christmas time. Excellent stuff !

Alphabetical list.