James Pond 2: Robocod (MD, 1991)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-6 Control-6.5 Challenge-7
Level Design-7 Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
+ Vehicles and equipment (wings, umbrella), stretch ability, good variety, bonus rounds (generally just simple rooms with a bunch of items in them), large bosses, expressive sprites, many hidden items and secret exits, upgradeable health bar, shortcuts, pretty fast movement, invincibility power up, stomp enemies to do more damage (press down in mid-air), some control over which path to take (choose between two areas per floor of the castle until the final area), some interesting bosses (ballerina twins),
+/- Sometimes very open ended level design (no maps), collectathon tendencies (penguin rescue, many items are just for points), gets rid of the water theme and fetch questing from the first game (this one’s mainly a platformer though there are a couple of throwback underwater levels (can’t shoot bubbles or carry items around in them though)), some points of no return (a hit detection bug at one point in the car themed area also makes it impossible to move left in one of the narrow sloping paths), wings and vehicles generally don’t carry over between levels, can only run in downward slopes (very fast and you can’t slide into enemies like in Mario or Sonic) – gives you some extra jump length, picky hit detection when jumping on enemies (if you’re not directly on top you’ll take damage even after hurting the enemy), no energy refills after bosses or beaten areas, lack of ties to Robocop beyond the name and the look of the armor, limited continues (only 2 – can’t be increased?), fairly easy to rack up extra lives
- Some backtracking, plenty of dead space, trial & error (piano stage spike trap, can’t stand on the blue soap platforms even though they can crush Pond from above, can’t stand or bounce on the giant snake heads, can’t attack the final boss without taking a hit while its head is attached, leaps/stretches of faith – can’t look up (can look down though it doesn’t always help) plus the scrolling is tight when jumping, fast moving enemies in narrow paths, boss patterns, figuring out what items do, cannon segment in the second area), no save or password feature, some blatant rips from Mario and Sonic, slow ceiling climbing, some tedious platforming sections, repetitive and obnoxious soundtrack, sometimes distracting backgrounds and garish colours, somewhat limited stretch move (a bit slow, can only stretch straight upwards, can’t use it while standing on moving platforms, oftentimes you’ll end up not being able to grab onto anything that lets you move upwards in the level), can’t go back to a beaten level to check out the alternate exits (can’t replay beaten areas at all – means that if you take the exit directly to the left in the first area then you’ll skip the entire thing and can’t go back), somewhat limited jump height control, killed enemies don’t respawn even if you move away from their spawning point (annoying when you want to use them as platforms to reach new areas), when jumping on enemies you’ll get hit if the enemy was moving upwards (winged guys, snowmen) since there’s no invincibility time in which it’s not solid (this doesn’t apply to bosses though; fixed in the SMS version though that one has worse hit detection in other areas), some hit detection problems around platforms and slopes when in the airplane and sloppy hit detection for both the giant snake heads and the final boss, repetitive and mostly generic soundtrack, can’t choose when to activate umbrellas (and they’re one use items)
Level Design-7 Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
+ Vehicles and equipment (wings, umbrella), stretch ability, good variety, bonus rounds (generally just simple rooms with a bunch of items in them), large bosses, expressive sprites, many hidden items and secret exits, upgradeable health bar, shortcuts, pretty fast movement, invincibility power up, stomp enemies to do more damage (press down in mid-air), some control over which path to take (choose between two areas per floor of the castle until the final area), some interesting bosses (ballerina twins),
+/- Sometimes very open ended level design (no maps), collectathon tendencies (penguin rescue, many items are just for points), gets rid of the water theme and fetch questing from the first game (this one’s mainly a platformer though there are a couple of throwback underwater levels (can’t shoot bubbles or carry items around in them though)), some points of no return (a hit detection bug at one point in the car themed area also makes it impossible to move left in one of the narrow sloping paths), wings and vehicles generally don’t carry over between levels, can only run in downward slopes (very fast and you can’t slide into enemies like in Mario or Sonic) – gives you some extra jump length, picky hit detection when jumping on enemies (if you’re not directly on top you’ll take damage even after hurting the enemy), no energy refills after bosses or beaten areas, lack of ties to Robocop beyond the name and the look of the armor, limited continues (only 2 – can’t be increased?), fairly easy to rack up extra lives
- Some backtracking, plenty of dead space, trial & error (piano stage spike trap, can’t stand on the blue soap platforms even though they can crush Pond from above, can’t stand or bounce on the giant snake heads, can’t attack the final boss without taking a hit while its head is attached, leaps/stretches of faith – can’t look up (can look down though it doesn’t always help) plus the scrolling is tight when jumping, fast moving enemies in narrow paths, boss patterns, figuring out what items do, cannon segment in the second area), no save or password feature, some blatant rips from Mario and Sonic, slow ceiling climbing, some tedious platforming sections, repetitive and obnoxious soundtrack, sometimes distracting backgrounds and garish colours, somewhat limited stretch move (a bit slow, can only stretch straight upwards, can’t use it while standing on moving platforms, oftentimes you’ll end up not being able to grab onto anything that lets you move upwards in the level), can’t go back to a beaten level to check out the alternate exits (can’t replay beaten areas at all – means that if you take the exit directly to the left in the first area then you’ll skip the entire thing and can’t go back), somewhat limited jump height control, killed enemies don’t respawn even if you move away from their spawning point (annoying when you want to use them as platforms to reach new areas), when jumping on enemies you’ll get hit if the enemy was moving upwards (winged guys, snowmen) since there’s no invincibility time in which it’s not solid (this doesn’t apply to bosses though; fixed in the SMS version though that one has worse hit detection in other areas), some hit detection problems around platforms and slopes when in the airplane and sloppy hit detection for both the giant snake heads and the final boss, repetitive and mostly generic soundtrack, can’t choose when to activate umbrellas (and they’re one use items)
