James Pond 2: Robocod Longplay (PlayStation) [4K]

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Developed by Vectordean and published by Play It in 2003 Ever since I learned of it's existence, I'd been looking to do a recording of the PlayStation version of this classic platformer. I'd seen some of the cool lighting effects in other videos, and I was keen to see what 32-bit could bring to the table. Not a whole lot it seems. This version of JP2 was released over a decade since the original Amiga version came out. It removes the McVitie's Penguin biscuit references and changes all of the level designs, although not for the better (in my opinion at least). Whereas there was a sense of exploration in the original Amiga release, the new levels in this version are small arenas that funnel the player to the exit, using a weird mish-mash of art assets that don't always fit with the world theme. The other big change is that the main levels are devoid of secret levels, instead choosing to give the player a single bonus level at the end of the stage, provided that the player performed sufficiently well. As far as I can deduce, access to these stages are triggered by collecting the requisite number of bonus point items in the preceding stage. I had to settle for 35/36 bonus levels because, try as I might, there's a single level (1:20:15) that I just couldn't get to trigger a bonus stage. I must have replayed the level over 10 times to see if I could work out what the problem was - there are only about 5 bonus items in the entire level and I scoured it from top to bottom to make sure I got them all, so I'm wondering if this is a design flaw? As for the CD soundtrack, this was just cribbed from the Amiga CD32 release. It still sounds great, but it just adds to the sense that this was just an opportunity to make some quick cash without doing too much to the original game. Is it enjoyable? Yes, but it it just lacks that sense of flair from the classic Amiga version of James Pond 2. #jamespond2 #playstation #retrogaming