James Pond: Underwater Agent (MD, 1991)
Graphics-6 Sound-4.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-7
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-5.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-5.5
+ Fast movement, basic object interaction (carry keys, dynamite, the birds, etc.), shop system (use the letters as currency?), choose your own path (sort of - there are multiple exits in some levels which lead to different missions but they aren’t marked so you don’t know beforehand where you’ll end up), expressive sprites, teleporters (the mushrooms), comical (parodies, wordplay), decent mission variety at first (rescue, escort, bomb target, treasure hunt), some hidden items, being on land damages Pond and land areas are often limited compared to the rest of the level (creates a sense of land as something off limits which makes sense in this context), better mission briefing than on Amiga (full screen of text),
+/- The bomb power up can hurt both Pond and the enemy, labyrinthine levels without maps, steep difficulty curve, time limit that doesn’t stop the game when it reaches zero, borrows from Super Mario Bros. and 80s Taito games, collectathon and fetch quest tendencies (lots of items that are just there for points, missions where collecting or moving an item from a to b is the goal), non-tedious (but also unconvincing) water physics, some unkillable enemies,
- Trial & error (need to read the manual to figure out what everything does, hitting a crushing trap (a pipe) from the side hurts Pond), unavoidable damage (narrow paths with enemies, enemies at the mushroom you’re teleporting to, rooms where your health slowly drains (salt water?)), makes poor use of the sound chip overall (very annoying item pick up sound) – better on Amiga, repetitive, no invincibility time after taking a hit, so-so use of the colour palette, no difficulty options, no large sprites, for your fins only mission could’ve been more interesting if there was some strategy to luring the ‘beach bums’ into the canisters, the mechanics (bubble shooting, item interaction, big treasure chest looting) could’ve had a bit more depth to them (see Taito games), waiting for doors to open in some levels (the bricks – can also be hard to notice them opening and closing at times), the level that has you move around on land more than usual is pretty tedious, very simple background graphics (sometimes better on Amiga), no bosses, crappy ending
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-5.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-5.5
+ Fast movement, basic object interaction (carry keys, dynamite, the birds, etc.), shop system (use the letters as currency?), choose your own path (sort of - there are multiple exits in some levels which lead to different missions but they aren’t marked so you don’t know beforehand where you’ll end up), expressive sprites, teleporters (the mushrooms), comical (parodies, wordplay), decent mission variety at first (rescue, escort, bomb target, treasure hunt), some hidden items, being on land damages Pond and land areas are often limited compared to the rest of the level (creates a sense of land as something off limits which makes sense in this context), better mission briefing than on Amiga (full screen of text),
+/- The bomb power up can hurt both Pond and the enemy, labyrinthine levels without maps, steep difficulty curve, time limit that doesn’t stop the game when it reaches zero, borrows from Super Mario Bros. and 80s Taito games, collectathon and fetch quest tendencies (lots of items that are just there for points, missions where collecting or moving an item from a to b is the goal), non-tedious (but also unconvincing) water physics, some unkillable enemies,
- Trial & error (need to read the manual to figure out what everything does, hitting a crushing trap (a pipe) from the side hurts Pond), unavoidable damage (narrow paths with enemies, enemies at the mushroom you’re teleporting to, rooms where your health slowly drains (salt water?)), makes poor use of the sound chip overall (very annoying item pick up sound) – better on Amiga, repetitive, no invincibility time after taking a hit, so-so use of the colour palette, no difficulty options, no large sprites, for your fins only mission could’ve been more interesting if there was some strategy to luring the ‘beach bums’ into the canisters, the mechanics (bubble shooting, item interaction, big treasure chest looting) could’ve had a bit more depth to them (see Taito games), waiting for doors to open in some levels (the bricks – can also be hard to notice them opening and closing at times), the level that has you move around on land more than usual is pretty tedious, very simple background graphics (sometimes better on Amiga), no bosses, crappy ending
