Retro Gaming – My Amiga Upbringings Part 2

Good and Bad Times at Franchise High – The Amiga 500 and an odd mix of Franchise Tie Ins

I have had mixed experiences with tie-ins as they always ways lure me in .Batman was a game that I had seen my friend playing and loved the mix of platform action interspersed with Batmobile/Batplane action. Based on the Tim Burton movie which was massive at the time (I had read the book, gone to the cinema and had a t-shirt) He didn’t seem to progress much off the first 2 levels so I took it home for a full test. I remember sticky moments trying to clip the balloons with the plane and even dying right on the last level just as you went to knock the Joker off. 

Robocop was a fairly run of the mill game but its saving graces were the “Dead or Alive you coming with me” voice recording, The ED-209 end bosses, the sniper type action with hostage takers and the big gun that fired a ball of flame. I did quiet like it though it seemed to have variety that many of these games lacked.

 

I’m rather fond of the Adams Family game which in ways was a Mario Clone. You played Gomez who had to visits parts of the House to free family members. I finished it out of sheer determination one rainy Sunday afternoon when the Amiga was in the Dining room under the stairs. It was the first time id finished a game and I was shaking through trying to kill the end of level boss and having 1 Heart left. Since then I’ve had it many times but it really proved to me trying hard and practice can pay off on these things.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – The Adventure (Point n Click) was one of 2 games that came out when the film did. This was the better one with a point and click method of going through the various scene much like Monkey Island. I can remember working through this with my mate sat in his bedroom on a Saturday afternoon. Especially the built were our tied to the chair with Henry Jones Snr and had to knock the axe over first so u could line your chair up properly to free yourself.

Like I said the Indiana Jones Point n click was one of 2 versions the other was an Arcade version which I received as a present. It was awful. The first level you were the young Indiana Jones and if you were lucky to get to the next level you made your way along the train. I remember it been unresponsive and exceedingly hard.

As you can tell this is where I’ll share some of the poorer Tie-ins. The Silver medal goes to Ghostbusters 2 for generally been dull and difficult. The First Level you are lowered in to a sewer on a rope while various ghosts attack you. This bits ok but there is an annoying ghostly hand that saws your rope that was a pain to get rid of. I got this as a Christmas present too (There’s a Theme starting here). After some effort with no outcome, It didn’t come out the box much and I only made it on to the walking statue of liberty screen twice.

The Gold Medal for worst Tie In goes to this game The Amazing Spiderman and Captain America in Doctor Doom’s revenge. You’ll probably guess but this too was a present, I think I was lured in to ask for it for my birthday and the box looked like a glossy comic cell and it came with an exclusive comic book. That’s were the similarity ended, the movement of the characters was poor and the cast of Villains was borderline Z List for Marvel. It even had a hideous Doctor Doom laugh all the way through with a sound like “HAW HAW”.  Watch the full game been played in 20 mins below and try and figure how many hours it took to be made.

Strangely this game haunted me right up to the Marvel Ultimate alliance on the 360 and after some poor Spiderman games on the Mega drive and Gamecube I didn’t think Marvel could do a good game.

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