James Pond

STORY / GAMEPLAY
James, this little fish character, was quite popular back in the 90s and was even featured in some comic books! The game was successful enough to spawn two more sequels and one spin-off. In James Pond: Underwater Agent you play the role of a secret oceanic agent, an intelligent, mutated anthropomorphic fish, hired by the British Secret Service to protect the seas and take out the bad guys of the underwater areas. You mainly have to set some innocent aquatic creatures free, solve puzzles, defeat enemies and find items to perform specific tasks such as keys to open the cages or sponges to bung up the holes on leaking oil tankers. James can also fire bubbles towards his enemies to trap them and finally pop them to kill. There are 12 different missions, each named after some James Bond movies! Each mission information is displayed right before you begin your quest. James Pond has a lot going for it with its colorful presentation and its great sense of humor!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Archimedes version looks nice but there is a significant amount of colors missing compared to the Amiga and ST, especially at the background scenery. The sprites' animation is smooth and the action is fast and combined with some cool, sampled sound effects (but no in-game music(!)