If you owned an Amiga there were certain
characters you were bound to know and love, one of these was James Pond,
he was a well loved star of several games but they wernt Amiga
exclusive in fact I think all of them ended up being on the megadrive /Genesis
and the super Nintendo got everything apart from his first game (James
pond 2 operation Robocod, was released on the SNES with the name Super
James Pond, almost ignoring that there was a previous game)
Now
you might think that I am going to be talking about Super James pond or
its sequel Operation Starfish but actually the game I am going to be
talking about today is The Aquatic Games or Super Aquatic Games as it is
known as on the Super Nintendo. Basically this game took the character
of James Pond and used him to front an aquatic-themed parody of the
sports mini games joystick wigglers like Konami's Track & Field.
This game is the only James Pond title not to be a platformer, you cant help but think that the programmers had the idea that they could spin the character off in to other genres and in doing so might help him to grow in fame and begin to approach Mario levels.
The
First thing I noticed when booting this game up was that I knew the
opening music, I more than knew it, it was something I have found myself
humming before and then it hit me it was a particularly cheery 8 bit
version of Ode to Joy (from Beethoven's 9th). I have to say this was a
good start as I put a smile on my face before I had even pressed a
button.
Now in talking about Super Aquatic games I have to admit that some of these issues are not really raised in relation to the game but to the whole genre at that time... theres only so much you can do when its bang buttons like mad till you win or loose, it tires your fingers you get blooming scared you will break the pad. The game does nothing to teach you how to play it so you end up spending so much time just messing around working out what you are supposed to be doing, sure in the day you would have had the manual and that would have helped but it wouldn’t have been that hard to put some in game instructions, some text on the screen before an event ? All of the games are really basic and despite my best efforts I couldn’t come anywhere, I admit I didnt hammer the pad as hard as a kid would have done back when this came out but who really wants to risk breaking a joypad from an old system when the number out there is finite ?
I loved the 3 James Pond platformers as a kid, I found them funny charming and enjoyable, I even enjoyed picking up the DS re-release of the second one so the problem here is I was and am invested in the character I think James Pond rules and if you cant manage to sell a spin off to someone who clearly loves the original franchise then you are clearly barking up the wrong tree.
Its just a shame, the games bright, has good music but just doesnt deliver, it feels souless and shallow and well I feel I need to give it a 2.5 out of 10 ….a sad sad day for James Pond. At first I thought that it didnt even hit these shores as all the copies I saw were American and between the realms of £10 to £15 add to the fact that a modfied machine wont even play it without a heavy duty Datel Universal Adaptor and well its expensive, but then I realised that in the UK it was called James Pond Crazy sports on the snes and its about a £8 to £10 pal game, its still not worth it
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