Robocod review - Sega Megadrive

The evil Dr Maybe is back, and this time he's determined to take over the world, and at the same time destroy the underwater agent James Pond who put a stop to his plans last time. He might have a little difficulty with the latter, however, as James has been cybernetically altered into part fish, part machine, all secret agent - Robocod!

Dr Maybe's plan this time around is to conquer the planet using evil psychopathic toys, manufactured at none other than Santa Claus' Arctic toy factory! Armed with his new found robotic abilities, Robocod must penetrate all levels of the evil operation, destroying any toys he sees, and hopefully bring Santa and Dr Maybe to Justice.

Robocod is a platform game similar to its predecessor, but is much slicker, with improved gameplay, more levels and a lot more variety. Robo runs and bounces around the landscape, killing everything that gets in his way. His ultimate aim is to find and destroy the giant guardian on each level - bump off every one and Dr Maybe and Santa will be defeated.

The only problem is - will Santa get out of prison in time for Christmas eve?

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Let's face it, Robocod has certainly been heavily "influenced" by other major console platform games such as Sonic and Mario, but it's managed to take all the best bits and leave out any annoyances. It's a huge game, with loads of secret rooms to discover. It has great graphics, with some superb scrolling, especially on the train and jelly scenes, and best of all it's got the most playable and addictive platform action the Megadrive has yet seen - and that's saying something! Once again, Electronic Arts have come up with the goods; an incredible game which only Captain Dough Head would miss.

A game starring a robotic fish was never going to be normal, but this gets a max on the barking bonkers scale! The game looks absolutely astounding, with gorgeous, super-cute sprites, outstanding backdrops and some fantastic effects. The sound is great too, with nauseatingly jolly tunes pounding away as you leap about. But it's the seriously bizarre sense of humour that runs throughout the game that makes this one of the most appealing and addictive Megadrive games yet. It's packed chock-a-block full of weird things and features; look out for Penguin biscuits, licorice allsorts, cute cars, vicious cuddly teddies, blue snowmen - and that's just on the first level! Robocod might look fabulous, but it plays even better! There are loads of wacky features, including mega high-speed jelly bounce levels, upside down screens and a race along the top of a cute speeding train - and the game is jammed full of secret screens, false and hidden doors and extra bonuses. The levels are brilliantly designed so that there are several ways to complete them, so even if you finish the game, you return time and time again to see whether you can find new routes and screens. Put all those points together and you've got the best platform game yet seen on the Megadrive. Yes - even better than Sonic and Mickey Mouse!

Have your say about this review

kintaro - 22 Jul 2008, 01:18 GMT

I always thought this game was overrated. It's not a bad game, exactly -- some of the scenery and baddies were pretty inventive (most of them were toys of one kind or another), and it had so many levels I lost count. But after a while I found the gameplay rather boring -- compared to the Sonic games it was very pedestrian. As a kid I must have spent hundreds of hours replaying the levels of every Sonic game -- even though I knew them inside out they were still much more fun than James Pond 2.

Jimbo - 15 Oct 2008, 04:13 GMT

Agree with the previous poster - i always thought the James Pomd games were a bit ..well...ordinary. And this title was particularly overrated. When you talk about platformers now (and even at the time) it would inevitably digress into discussions about Mario, Sonic and Mickey...and not Mr Pond. As for the grafx - i thought the backgrouds (though wierd as the MM team liked to phrase it) were a bit of a cop out - just repeat the same single graphic over and over..takes great programming ability i would imagine.

Richy Girth - 23 Oct 2008, 23:05 GMT

I loved this back in the day.
While Mario and Sonic were beginning their fight to the bitter death,
this classic arrived tongue firmly-in-cheek arrived in time to poke fun at the genre that it examplifies so well.

I was never really into the first James Pond game.
Sure on the Amiga, it looked nice, with its crazy colour paletted backgrounds and stuff, but a game that does not make alone.
And the gameplay itself just felt so....derivitive.

So when this game came along, with revised design, reworked gameplay and parodising and approximating the Sega and Nintendo big hitters - while wee-weeing all in the dinner of the game preceeding it - it caught my attention on the Amiga.

I was a Robocop fan and appreciated the new slant that the former Bond homage went with and loved the various seemigly ironic visual references etc but the game itself stood out more for its fliudity of gameplay, surrealistic graphics, annoyingly catchy tunes, decent sound fx.

The Megadrive translation of this game, graphically, sonically was excellent.
And the joypad/controls felt better on the uber Sega.

I never completed it back in the day. May have to go for it again not just for the sheer nostalgia of it.
Sure, Sonic and Mario could be consaidered superior, but this gem was always its own kind of fun.

Tris Wicks - 05 Nov 2008, 06:23 GMT

Like a bad penny Robocod still turns up (DS and PS2 recently). I find it dull, slow and deeply unimaginative. The initial concepts are not deeply parodied (if at all) and are amusing for about five minutes - longer if you're special. This game does however have the charm of its publisher, EA. Robocod's for button fudgers and any true platforming connoisseur worth their salt would discourage this turd of a game.

Richy Girth - 03 Dec 2008, 16:00 GMT

Wow. Harsh. I would more apply that level of poo-pooing to it's predecessor, maybe, but not this game...
No accounting for taste I guess...

Dan - 11 Mar 2009, 09:42 GMT

Robocod blew me away when I first owned it, the graphics, sense of humour, easy-to-pick up and playness of it, variety etc. etc. all had me hooked, I loved it! However, after a few weeks worth of play it did become aparant that, for all it's neat touches, it was a fairly shallow game that was nowhere near the likes of Mario when it came to replayability. Still a good game, but never a classic.

Pete Green - 18 Apr 2009, 11:40 GMT

I thought Sonic was the most overrated game ever. I used to bum real life hedgehogs in the mouth as I couldn't separate them from the blue one in that joyless game. I liked this game a lot on the Amiga. I agree with the reviewers you cunts. Zool was really crap though, many elderly people died because of that game.

Dan - 30 Jun 2010, 13:50 GMT

Pete Green = Legend

Dom C - 17 Jun 2011, 22:59 GMT

This is a charming, wonderful, playable, yet tricky computer game with playful and catchy music which I have fond memories of. The music will stick in your head, but in a good way and have you humming ad infinitum! It is a classic, but as other posters have suggested, not quite up there with Sonic, Mario 3, Super Mario World, DKC, Yoshi's Island and Sonic 2 for 16-bit plaforming action. Well worth a look though.

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