Impossamole

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Monty Mole has come out of retirement, but once again he longed for the excitement of adventure, as a passing alien spaceship decided to beam him up for a new mission. Apparently the Aliens' sacred scrolls of eternal life have been stolen by five Guardians. Each of these is hiding at the end of five levels, ranging from the homely mines of the Klondike to the mysterious Orient. Each level comprises several layered horizontally scrolling sections linked by chasms, ropes, and ladders. Of course they are also inhabited by plenty of evil minions and a variety of deadly traps based on the each levels' landscape, which reduce Monty's energy on contact easier than...expected! Combat involves either Monty using his super powers to kick his aggressors to oblivion or hitting his enemies with bombs and guns collected along the way. But...the weapons are far less effective than you might expect! Of course Monty's health can be restored by picking up food (worms...and ice creams!) around the levels. Also be on the look-out for jewels, lumps of gold and coins as occasionally you'll meet a shopkeeper along the way.
What is really interesting is that, the first four levels can be attempted in any order, but all four must be completed to allow access to the final one. Impossamole is a rather ridiculously difficult platfomer, as Monty's health is easily reduced. I found it impossible to get very far, just one mistake can cost a huge amount of energy and with only one-life (!) things can get more than a bit frustrating... Overall, a nice effort, a cute character and some passable gameplay here.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Same as with the Atari ST version, the Amiga game is equally tough and nothing special to look at with typically cutesy sprites gracing adequate backdrops and a total of only 16 colors on screen! At least the default 32-colors on screen should be supported here, but anyway! Surely the platform-and-ladders action isn't exactly innovative, although there are some nice touches with each level having appropriate nasties and features to the level (world) being visited. Especially the backdrops look quite "empty" in detail at times, though there are the occasional perspective changes in the form of trees and spears (e.g. in the Amazon world) going behind then in front of you. Jolly staff but nothing to get excited over. Also the screen size here is bigger, making it a bit more...playable. Note also that, the Amiga version plays a bit easier, as for some reason, the enemies are more vulnerable to the guns or kicks! Or is it my impression? In general, the graphics are not up to the Rick Dangerous standards, and certainly not to the Amiga standards...Is this another ST port? Probably, yes, but at least the sound is enhanced!
The sound offers a rather memorable introductory tune, which is some of my best liking especially on the Amiga version. Unfortunately you may choose only between sound effects or music during gameplay. The sound effects here are some pretty cool samples that adds to the funny Monty's character in contrast to the ST version which uses some rather plain effects.