Now into it's third incarnation on the Amiga, following the original Amiga release and the subsequent enhanced AGA version, Millenium have now released ROBOCOD on the CD32 and in the process have beaten every other software house in getting a CD32 game into the shops.
If you haven't seen ROBOCOD before (shame on you!), you control special underwater agent James Pond, an agent for the top secret organisation F.I.5.H., and you have been assigned the dangerous mission of stopping the evil Doctor Maybe in his latest plan to take over the world. Maybe has taken over the world's central toy factory, located at the north pole, and has planted explosives in a number of toy penguins, ready to be distributed to unsuspecting customers all over the world. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to infiltrate Maybe's factory and locate all of the penguins and disable the explosives and return home in time for tea (okay, the last bit is optional!).
To aid you on your task, you have been equipped with a RoboCod Expandosuit, which will enable you to stretch and reach parts other fishes cannot reach! Good luck, and may the tide be at your back!
ROBOCOD takes the form of a platform game, seeing our aquatic hero leaping all over the toy factory (does that make him a flying fish?), trying to find the missing penguins and then reaching the exits on each stage. There are 9 levels, each consisting of several sub levels, each following a different theme. There are sports levels, food levels (my favourite has to be the jelly level where Robocod has a habit of bouncing all over the place incessantly!) and many more. As well as all that, there are even a few hidden levels.
All this would be rather straightforward, and somewhat boring, if it wasn't for Maybe's minions roaming the factory defending the explosive penguins. You either have to avoid these sentries or destroy them by jumping on them from above.
Okay, that's the plot, but what's the game like? Well, it's very playable and full of subtle humour (especially the corny fish jokes -- really, there's no plaice for them in a game like this!), and it's amazingly fast. Forget Sonic or Zool, compared to them, this runs at Warp Speed! When Robocod is running down a hill, he really moves! But despite this speed, it's simple to control and you can be playing the game comfortably within minutes of loading the CD. Congratulations must go to Millenium for coming up with a control system that is intuitive and friendly to use. Also, unlike the original Amiga versions, instead of pushing up to jump, this has now been substituted for one of the buttons on the controller. Okay, it's only a minor touch, but the buttons are there so it's good to see a software house making use of them.
Graphically, it is very similar to the A1200 version (which is no bad thing), and the game runs in 256 colour graphics (compared with 64 for Sonic..!) with smooth scrolling and a parallax backdrop (although this is a fairly plain backdrop of assorted geometric shapes with a colour gradient fill). The CD32 copes well with the speed and colours and very rarely, if ever, is seen to slow down. (However, there are occasional jolts when the screen tries to scroll at 100 frames a second!)
One of the best visual effects has to be on one of the hidden levels which sees Pond riding on the back of a flying train! The train is scrolling from right to left and bobbing up and down at the same time. To give the impression that the train is flying, there are clouds flying in the background all over the place. So what, I hear you ask? That level was on the A500 version too. Yes, but on the CD32 version, the train is semi- transparent and you can see the clouds THROUGH the train! A stunning effect and simple to achieve on the CD32.
Sound is equally impressive. Instead of simply porting across the A1200 version, Millenium have had all the in-game music re-recorded in a studio by the game's musician Richard Joseph, and it is all now presented as CD quality music! In total there is over 16 minutes of music spanning 7 different tracks (which can also be played in a standard audio CD player). As well as this, there are sound effects played on top and the occasional ditty created using the Amiga's own sound capabilities. Simply wonderful.
What more can be said? Well, how about the intro! When you load the CD, you are presented with a short cartoon introducing Pond. None of your quarter- screen CDXL footage here. This is full screen (well, the same screen size as the game) 32 colour smooth video footage and it needs NO additional hardware! After that you are presented with a menu on top of a 256 colour picture, which offers the option of loading the game, seeing another cartoon (a preview for James Pond III) or to read the "electronic book" giving background details on the characters in the game.
While both of the cartoons have the occasional blip on the sound and the colours change occasionally, they are both well animated and full of humour. When this was running at a computer show recently, there were massive crowds drawn to the CD32 just because of the cartoon sequences. If this is what they can produce without the FMV card, I can't wait to see what can be done WITH it!!
The electronic book is nothing special, but the text is well written, has a few nice in-jokes and fishy puns, there are some good digitised graphics and all of it is accompanied by the original Amiga version of the ROBOCOD theme. Nothing spectacular, but it's nice to see someone making use of the extra space available on CD.
Finally, I have to mention the fact that the game is sponsored - by Penguin biscuits! Surprisingly, this doesn't detract from the game at all and it seems to fit in well with the games scenario. There is an obligatory Penguin level where the scenery is made up of chocolate bars and the in- game intro sequence features a couple of the characters from the TV adverts, but if sponsorship can help produce games this good, who cares?!
Overall, this is a superb first release (not counting the bundled "Diggers") and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone after a good platform game. Buy this or you deserve to meet your own watery end!
