Path: news.uh.edu!barrett From: kcci1@central.susx.ac.uk (Alan L.M. Buxey) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: MINI-REVIEW: James Pond 2 - Robocod CD32 Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games Date: 26 Apr 1994 19:03:31 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 104 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <2pjoi3$ld2@masala.cc.uh.edu> Reply-To: kcci1@central.susx.ac.uk (Alan L.M. Buxey) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: game, platform, CD-ROM, commercial Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu James Pond 2 - Robocod Software Company: Millennium Address: Quern House, Mill Court, Great Shelford, Cambridge, CB2 5LD, United Kingdom. Phone: (0223) 844 894 Fax: ? E-Mail: ? List Price: 29.99 Review by Jukka O. Kauppinen (Finland) and Alan Buxey (England) All prices are quoted in English Pounds. All phone/fax numbers are in each country's native format. To call from abroad remember to add the country code and delete the first figure of the dialing code. For example '+ BRITAIN - 444 - XXX XXXX' Jukka ----- (rev.2) Pond is back! This time, evil thieves have stolen all the toys from The Toy Factory, and carried them away. So James must recover them - from the North Pole! This is wild and funny - if you like platformers. James is a nice (though not furry) thing, and even has special equipment for this mission. There's a huge castle with dozens of rooms (levels) that James must run through, jumping, avoiding pikes and other "bad things" and collecting lots of bonuses. JP2 has three major points: o The graphics are great for a platformer: background coppers and colourful backgrounds. o Playability is quite good o The sound is GREAT! James' audio is possibly best I've heard in any game. It comes from CD, so quality is naturally CD-quality, and also the music is GOOD! Great going! Without this music, JP2 would be only "above average", but now - it adds huge amount of gameplay. As an added bonus, the game contains an excellent intro animation and advertisement for next James Pond-game. I think somebody from Millennium mentioned somewhere that those animations cost around 40.000 pounds! Music makes a game - this doesn't happen too often (anybody remember Cybernoid/Cybernoid II?), but it's real this time. You could even listen this music while reading a book. Alan ----(rev. 2) A great platformer! Well, the floppy version was anyway ;). This version is Robocod AGA with CD soundtracks throughout the game. The graphics are just as bouncy and cute as the original - but I would say that with a better controller, this would be better! The CD soundtrack pushes this platformer above any other current one - they really are great and take me back to the days when we used to have quality music in a game (e.g., Last Ninga or Sanxion on the C64). There are many other great features; e.g., I loved the cartoon that can be selected from the menu too (a trailer for James Pond III - Operation Starfish) - it certainly impressed some friends! Features: "mpeg" cartoon. The cheat has been removed - its a new one. ;) RATINGS ------- Jukka Alan Graphics: **** **** Sound: ***** ***** Playability: **** **** Lastability: *** *** Overall: **** **** About the reviewers.... Freelance journalism by Mail: E-Mail: Jukka O. Kauppinen Sankarinkatu 9A3 Grendel@Freenet.hut.fi MikroBITTI 74100 IISALMI tel/fax +358-77-13192 FINLAND Amiga 500/1200(030),PC386,CD32,C64 Freelance journalism by Mail: E-Mail: Alan L.M. Buxey 32 Tangier Road, Baffins kcci1@solx1.susx.ac.uk P.A.U.G. Portsmouth, Hants tel/fax PO3 6JN England Amiga 500/1200, CD32, Spectrum+3 ;) --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews