home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Fresh Fish 8
/
FreshFishVol8-CD1.bin
/
useful
/
reviews
/
software
/
games
/
jamespond3starfishcd32
< prev
next >
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
1994-07-01
|
16KB
Path: news.uh.edu!barrett
From: bath0011@fh-karlsruhe.de (Thomas Baetzler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: James Pond 3: Operation Starfish CD^32
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games
Date: 2 Jul 1994 02:12:21 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 353
Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <2v2ie5$efv@masala.cc.uh.edu>
Reply-To: bath0011@fh-karlsruhe.de (Thomas Baetzler)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: game, platform, CD-ROM, commercial
Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu
PRODUCT NAME
James Pond 3: Operation Starfish CD^32
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
A cute "jump 'n run" game in the vein of console classics like Super
Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog, starring the well-known secret agent James
Pond in his third adventure.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Millenium Interactive Ltd.
Address: Quern House,
Mill Court,
Great Shelford,
Cambridge CB2 5LD
United Kingdom
Telephone: ++44 (0)223 844894
++44 (0)223 846023 (Customer Support)
FAX: ++44 (0)223 844918
LIST PRICE
The suggested retail price seems to be DM 89.-
This is about $50 (US).
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
A CD^32. A comment in the startup-sequence of the game has
the following to say about game compatibility:
"If you're reading this and you've got an A1200
CD-ROM Drive, then perhaps you should know that I don't think
the program will work with it....
"It definately [sic] won't work with a SCSI CD-ROM
drive attached to an A1200 or A4000....
"And we don't know if it works with an FMV cart in
either, because CBM never got round to giving us a version.
How they expect FMV titles out there is beyond me, guv.
"Have Fun!"
SOFTWARE
None.
COPY PROTECTION
Invisible.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
CD^32 (PAL version)
REVIEW
After "License to Gill" and "Codename: Robocod", the fishy
underwater agent James Pond is back to battle it out with the evil Dr.
Maybe for a third time in "Operation Starfish". This time, the F.I.5's
arch-enemy has taken three of James Pond's fellow agents prisoner while they
were trying to find out what's going on on the moon.
Unlike most other CD^32 titles that I know, this game comes in its
own cardboard box containing a plain jewel box with the CD-ROM, the game
manual, and more than enough junk to make all the kids in the neighbourhood
happy.
After a short loading period, the game starts up with a cartoon-style
CDXL animation that introduces James Pond as the underwater agent who's
licensed to gill. Avid Robocod fans will notice that this animation was
also the trailer for the second episode of Pond's adventures.
While the idea of having a title animation is nice, it suffers from
bad execution in this case. The movie looks like it was first created as a
real animated cartoon, and then transferred to digital format by means of a
rather cheap realtime digitizer, which would account for the fuzzy outlines,
the pale colors and all the color noise. Anyways, once you have seen the
animation yourself a couple of times, and shown it to all your friends, you
can just skip over it by pressing the fire button. The game then proceeds
to load and comments on this with messages like "Yup. Still loading..." on
the display, until you get to the title screen, which looks rather drab and
console-like, without fancy graphics or a nice tune playing in the
background. If you wait long enough, you'll get to see a cartoon outline of
the game's background, as well as a Star Wars-alike scrolling message
detailing the story so far.
By pressing a button, you move on to the Options screen. Here, you
can start a new game, resume a previously saved game, or set some game
options, such as whether you want to play in Easy or Normal mode, or whether
you want the game commentary to be terse or verbose. The sound selection
lets you choose between playing with only sound effects, only soundtrack, or
both at once.
There is no option that lets you modify the way James Pond is
controlled. Pressing the red or green buttons while moving will always give
him medium or maximum acceleration, pressing the yellow button will pick up
or drop objects or fire a weapon, and pressing the blue button will let him
jump. As you can see, there are lots of functions to be used. Using a
joystick doesn't make sense if you don't have a keyboard attached to your
CD^32 to control the additional functions.
Upon starting the game for the first time, I had to fight a certain
sense of deja vu: just like the Super Nintendo classic Super Mario World,
Operation Starfish presents the player with a so-called world map, where
each location represents one of the levels in the game. To progress on the
paths beyond a certain location, Pond has to complete that particular
level. By pressing virtually any button, Pond enters the level at the
current location, and you find yourself transported to the familiar world of
a two-dimensional, 8-way scrolling jump 'n run game.
Pond has to navigate his way from his starting point to the exit
beacon, which is hidden somewhere on the level, avoiding enemies and
obstacles on the way. Each time he messes up, he loses one of the initially
three energy stars, and finally one of his lives, or rather "chances" as
the manual euphemistically terms it in places.
Since "Codename: Robocod," the second part of the James Pond saga,
our hero has lost his flexible body suit. Instead, he has now fancy magnetic
moon boots which enable him to scale walls or walk on the ceiling. His
jumping abilities haven't diminished, and he can still take out his
opponents by a well-aimed drop on their head. If putting the boot in
doesn't work, Pond can also resort to using one of the collectible extras
like a rock, a gun, or explosives, if he happens to carry that particular
item. The big problem is that he can only carry one item at a time, so that
you can't create the all-powerful super-hero by just collecting everything
that's to be found. Actually, carrying some items around can be quite
dangerous: the dynamite for example ignites whenever Pond picks it up.
After a few seconds, it just explodes. Too bad for James Pond if he still
happens to be holding it.
Actually, the collectibles in the game can be divided into three
classes. First, there are the bonus objects which give extra points when
collected. The most obvious of these are rings, which can be found almost
everywhere. Collecting 1000 of these gives Pond an extra life. The others
like coins, trophies and crowns are usually hidden from sight in remote
locations, to make exploring worthwhile. The second class are the
power-ups, which increase Pond's abilities like extra life, extra energy,
temporary invincibility or weapon powerup. Usually, collecting more than
what is feasible gives you bonus points. The last class have to be the
genuine extras, of which Pond can only carry one at a time. These include a
fruit gun, various fruit to throw at your enemies, an umbrella to float, a
rocket glider, and last but not least, the powerful fruit suits that serve
as additional armour.
Most of the collectibles can be found only by bumping into bonus
blocks, which are marked with an exclamation mark when visible. The pity is
that most of them are invisible to start with, so that you have to bump into
them to make them visible in the first place. A good place to look for them
is in locations where you seem to be stuck without a way out or without the
extra you need. If you don't get the extra you need, you can try and use
the bonus block as a stepping stone to previously inaccessible regions.
"How do I get out" puzzles like the one described above are one of the
main challenges in Operation Starfish - besides surviving the environment
and its inhabitants, that is. The key to solving these is usually the
understanding of what you can do with your extras - like the knowledge that
some objects can be stepped upon, and that an umbrella isn't just good for
floating down below it.
The game also offers m