James Pond 2 Robocod is one of my favorite games on my Amiga CD 32. It was the most original idea I have came across and is still in my mind to be one of the best games to reach the Amiga platform, and one of the most fun games I have ever played.
James Pond is basically a red fish in a mechanical suit, but with the moves of James Bond and mechanical parts like Robocop. Straight away you have a very humorous character, and with a humorous character comes a very humorous game.
James Pond had the ability to jump, and also travel at high speeds in a Superfrog like fashion when traveling down a slope. One of his most memorable abilities was to extend his body to comical heights to reach a higher platform or bonus items that were well out of reach. His enemies held just as much comedic value to the game. Characters like walking gloves, jumping buses, and flying enemies with playing cards for wings would all patrol the levels and became challenging obstacles. Some characters would simply patrol an area and other would try to chase you. No matter what form the characters took, they always had a face, and various facial expressions were handed to each character. Another obstacle were
guns embedded into the walls on some levels that would fire bullets horizontally across the screen meaning you would have to jump over them. This is something now seen in Mario games, but originally came from James Pond.
Each level always had exciting and colorful scenery, with some kind of theme throughout. The general storyline was that Dr Maybe (the only human character in the game) had kidnapped all the toys and James Pond was the only one who could save the day. So enemies usually took the form of modified toys, and so did the scenery. Smiling footballs (soccer balls), teddy bears, table tennis bats (rackets / paddles) would all be built into the scenery. Haystacks, bricks, ice, castles would all be part of the scenery, this game certainly shows variety which is often lacking in other games.
Music was the real gold in this game, and is the most nostalgic element playing it now. Every tune was fun and addicting, and would change everytime James Pond would enter a door to a new room. This kept the game fresh throughout, and just like everything else in the game zeroed out any chance of boredom.
James Pond 2 Robocod appeared on several platforms such as the Commodore 64, the Amiga CD32, the Sega Mega Drive and the lesser known Playstation version. It is commonly thought that the best version was the Amiga CD32 version, as it was the best graphics and sound the game had ever had, and added new sound effects previously not in the game, and improved both the vector art and sound quality. It is also the version to feature the best introduction of the game with skating penguins in which the storyline is subtitled underneath. Then to great amusement the introduction becomes an advert for Penguin biscuits. The Playstation version of the game has a 3D cell shaded introduction previously not seen on any earlier versions. However it is poorly animated and does not reflect the same humor that James Pond is all about.
This is certainly one of the most entertaining and humorous games to grace the earth. This is shown by the constant remakes on each platform and the smile you see when you mention the game to a former player. It was well animated, funny, graphically appealing and had strong gameplay throughout. I'd easily rate it a 9/10.
