Robocod

STORY / GAMEPLAY
It's nearly two years since 1990, when the original "James Pond" was developed for the Amiga computers, scoring a massive 9 out of 10 in almost all major video game magazines of the time. The story begins with Dr Maybe (!) who's holding a toy factory to ransom in the North Pole (Santa's toy factory actually) with the intention to cause present-less Christmas for every child! The nasty doctor has been manufacturing a range of lethal playthings in an attempt to take revenge for his defeat in the previous game's story. And he will finally succeed unless James (our little fish-Bond hero) steps in! A high-tech RoboCop style suit enables Pond to expand his torso to preposterous heights! This comes in extremely handy during gameplay as very often you'll have to reach platforms and grip on them with your "fishy" fingers! During the game, you will find loads of power-ups. Hostile creatures lurk in these levels, and they come in many forms. There are no weapons in the game, so James must jump on them to kill them. The whole action takes place in rooms fully decorated with huge toys, candies and other kid stuff. Ok, the action is a stereotypical platform mayhem and basically all you have to do is to run, jump, squash, stretch (!) and generally splash your fins around, defeating baddies and killing massive bosses every two stages or so, in a joyful and very colorful wrap!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics on the DOS version look cool and they are very colorful (50+ colors on screen) while the action is fast and smooth; the game runs in VGA mode only. The game's visuals are comparable to the Amiga (OCS) version but the Amiga version feels faster and more responsive at times. Although the DOS offers some more artistic touches on the backgrounds, they seem to sometimes "abuse" your eyes rather than helping during gameplay. Comparably, the Amiga AGA version is way better than any other 16bit release as it uses advanced color techniques, more details and even faster gameplay! The sound on the PC is good, using the Sound Blaster's capabilities and includes the original in-game tunes as well as the funny sampled sound effects (but of lower quality compared to the Amiga).
Note that, the MS-DOS version looks and sounds better than the Atari ST version and even the enhanced STE version, due to the ST's lower color palette and sound generator capabilities. Either way, all 16bit home computer (and console) RoboCod versions have great visuals, catchy sounds and they are so much fun to play!