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🎮 Weird Dreams (Amiga) Longplay

Top Ten Platform Games on the Amiga

This is one of those weeks where I had something all set and ready to go, but then a piece of info struck me like grapefruit in the face (that’s a James Cagney reference for all you fans of classic Hollywood). Because I found out that this week – July 23rd to be exact – was the fortieth anniversary of the Amiga, the most significant computer in my life and a huge influence on the sorts of things I like doing in my spare time (specifically: playing videogames and writing stories nobody reads).

Now, technically, 1985 marked the release of the A1000, the first of Commodore’s range of Amiga machines. Like most Amiga fanboys, I imagine, I didn’t come onto the scene until a bit later, with the iconic and epoch-defining A500, which was released in 1987 (and which I think I got for Christmas 1990). However, in a very real sense the Age of the Amiga began forty years ago, and it’s something we should all celebrate.

I’ve talked about the Amiga a few times in past lists, so I wanted to talk about something new this time around. I had a look at an old “Top Ten Amiga Games” list that I wrote a decade (!) ago, and to be honest I don’t think I’d really change it – I’m not playing a lot of Amiga games at the moment in order to revise long-standing opinions, and plus nothing’s ever going to top The Secret of Monkey Island is it? – so I wanted to try a different tack. Now, my favourite genres of games – as that list will attest – tended to be slower-paced and more strategic affairs, with the odd crazy action game stuck in there for a giggle. But the genre that definitely defined the 16-bit era was the platform game.

This was the time of the “mascot platformers”, if you remember; of course there was Sonic and there was Mario, but there was also Bubsy the Bobcat and Cool Spot and Titus the Fox and B.C. Kid and Aero the Bat (and, I guess, ones that better stood the test of time, like Donkey Kong and Mega Man). You couldn’t swing an Action Replay cartridge without hitting an oddly anthropomorphised animal with attitude as it leaped from rocky outcropping to redbrick block to bouncy cloud, probably collecting some sort of gently pulsating trinket whilst trying to avoid the machinations of smaller creatures moving back and forth in rigid patterns.

Ah, it was a simpler time.

The main home of such platformers was, truth be told, the 16-bit consoles – a joypad was much better suited to that sort of gameplay, I’d argue – but the Amiga gave it a fair old whack. I don’t think the platform ever really solidified around a mascot of its own, probably because Commodore themselves weren’t making games and so most Amiga releases tended to wind up on other systems anyway. But all the same there were quite a few characters that I will forever associate with the big beige wedge.

And so that’s what we have here: as a birthday treat for Mr. Amiga, my ten favourite Amiga platform games.

Do I have arbitrary rules? Is Zool a ninja?

So, I’m trying to be quite strict here about what I do and don’t consider a “platform” game. I think there’s a type of what used to be called “arcade adventure” game that’s still 2D and often side-scrolling (although sometimes with discrete screens that switch as you leave), but which I hesitate to call “platformers”, even if  sometimes you are jumping and clambering over platforms. There are also, effectively, side-on puzzle games, which – again – might include platform elements, but which don’t really tick the box for me. No, I’m trying to be quite strict here, and focus only on the more fast-paced and action-oriented games that required jumping from ledge to ledge as the main gameplay hook. As such I have discounted the likes of Another World, The Lost Vikings, the Dizzy series and – after a long dark teatime of the soul – my beloved Flashback. Of all these games, I think Flashback is the closest to being a “platformer” as navigating the landscape is a major point of the game. But I think the rigid movement makes the jumps almost more puzzle-like; and the crux of the game is definitely adventuring and puzzle-solving. The same goes for, whilst I’m at it, Prince of Persia and the Shadow of the Beast series. Hey, maybe I’ll do an “alternative platform games” list at some point.

Right, that’s all the preamble bollocks out of the way. Plug in your Zipstick, get the floppy out the box, and make sure the modulator isn’t dangling loose off the back or you won’t get a picture on the TV. It’s time for a game.

James Pond 2: Codename: RoboCod (1991): this had it all. Bright, colourful graphics, but also very weird; cute little animals and sweets; a hub world; strange levels based on themes; and a quirky central gimmick (you could mechanically stretch your torso to reach higher ground). It was damn good fun, and very funny too; plus the “RoboCod” pun nicely tied into the first game’s “James Pond” gaggery. Anyway, it’s a masterpiece.

Zool (1992): I’ve picked the first game as I’ve played it more, but I think the sequel was a bit better (I think I only played a coverdisk demo, though). Anyway, Zool was the closest the Amiga got to having its own proper mascot, I think; he does all the usual platforming stuff well, but his odd alien ninja style gives him delightful quirks.

Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck (1993): now I have gone with the sequel here, possibly to the annoyance of purists. I just liked the extra gameplay wrinkles of Chuck Jr’s big club (steady). These games had a great use of parallax that almost made them feel like cut-out animation to my young eyes, and a nice taste in punning names (also picking the sequel means we don’t have to discuss “Gary Gritter”. Hmmm).

Rainbow Islands (1990): I ummed and ahhed about this. I’m trying, really, to celebrate Amiga platformers, and this was a big famous hit before being ported to the platform. However, it came bundled with my Amiga, and so is an indelible part of my relationship the machine. I always found it too hard (preferring the more puzzle-esque sequel Parasol Stars), but looking back its got terrific level design and central gimmick with the rainbow platforms.

The Blues Brothers (1991): the first of a couple of games that may be semi-forgotten, this was a lovely if idiosyncratic adaptation of the movie. Cartoon versions of the brothers navigated relatively open interpretations of locations from the film, picking up and chucking boxes at people and collecting records. It was stylish, relatively novel with its interactivity, and it had a banging soundtrack.

Putty (1992): fun fact: I thought I’d played Putty Squad, the sequel, but I’m guessing it must have been a demo because despite being finished I have just discovered it was never actually released on the Amiga until 2013. 2013! Anyway, the Putty games had a unique central character – a blob – and this gave them some individual gameplay quirks, such as stretching your way around and turning into a puddle. Inventive!

Superfrog (1993): a bit like Rainbow, I sort of bounced off this at the time, but even back then I could appreciate what others saw in it (I was probably just too crap). Developers Team 17 were on a roll at this point, and this was a supremely polished affair with absolutely gorgeous cartoony graphics. If memory serves, Superfrog himself had a lot of character, and his lazy-eyed design was actually a big influence on my own drawing style.

Premiere (1992): right off the bat, this game had a stunning intro, an animation with recorded speech that took up an entire floppy disk. The game itself I remember being fun, with a distinct hook of the levels taking place within movies but also the backlot – you could at times move “backstage” and traverse the levels from the other side, so to speak. I’m not sure it was that warmly received but I know I enjoyed it.

Assassin (1992): again we might be in forgotten realms here, but this was another Team 17 effort that mixed fast-paced platforming with a more realistic edge and some robust combat. There’s lots of running and jumping, shooting and fighting, and a bit like Zool it let you actually climb onto the scenery. It also had an incredibly amusing parody of contemporary cigarette ads that requires too much time to explain here.

Oscar (1993): sadly edging out the likes of The Addams Family, Leander, and Titus the Fox, this was – like Rainbow – a game I played a lot because it came with my Amiga, in this case my successor computer, the A1200. It was a looker: incredibly dense graphics full of detail and layers, and it had a beautiful water effect where the surface reflected the level, and then when you dived in the water became transparent and all the audio was muffled. I remember the gameplay being great fun too, although it’s another one that I think had a slightly muted critical response.

Sadly dropping off the bottom of the list is a game called Doodle Bug. I have no recollection of Doodle Bug in terms of what it was actually like; what it played like, what the levels were like, whether it was actually any good. But I must have liked it at the time, because I have vivid memories of drawing pictures of the character (I think there was some vague drawing-related shenanigans in the gameplay, and as someone who drew a lot, this appealed to me). When I was about ten, my dad took me to GamesMaster Live in Birmingham, and we went to a restaurant in the Bullring, and the restaurant gave kids pencils to draw on the paper placemats, and I drew a picture of Doodle Bug which they put up on the wall. Remember all this incredibly well, as I do most of the details of that trip. What I don’t remember is Doodle Bug the game. But that’s okay. Even if it sucked, it did enough.

Amiga Pistorm (German Tutorial Part 3):