Computer Platform Games #9

Bomb Jack II (1987)
By: Elite Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: ZX Spectrum First Day Score: 10,400
Also Available For: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64

I was a big fan of Tehkan's classic bomb-collecting platformer, Bomb Jack, and as detailed in a previous post, I spent a great many happy afternoons playing the excellent CPC version at a friend's house on the way home from school. As you might imagine, I was therefore keen to acquire the game for my Speccy too, but I never saw it in the shops for some reason. I did see Bomb Jack II though, and soon bought it hoping it would be more or less the same as the game I had been enjoying so much. Sadly, I quickly learned that aside from using the same name and main character, it bore little resemblance to the original. Okay, it was also a single-screen platformer and there were still small platforms dotted around the screen and you still had to collect stuffs and there were still enemies to avoid. But it still didn't play much like the mighty Bomb Jack (no, not Mighty Bomb Jack). But was it enjoyable in its own right?

Well, that depends, I guess. As the loading screen may indicate, Jack is again the star of the show, but there's nary a bomb in sight for him to collect. His adventure this time is apparently 'a comic caper of the tactical kind', according to the game's blurb, which tasks him with collecting treasure, not bombs. It should've been called Treasure Jack in that case, surely? That's not even the most un-Bomb Jack-like part either. No, that's to do with how Jack moves around. The first game was popular for his lightning-fast, super-responsive, pixel-perfect jumping ability (amongst other things) that saw skilled players zipping around the whole screen like a hyperactive gnat, and it's this mechanic that is missing in Bomb Jack II. I don't mean it hasn't been as well-implemented or that it has been changed in some way. It's gone altogether, to the extent that there isn't even a jump button anymore.

Yes, I was exactly as bewildered as you upon witnessing this affront to the Bomb Jack name. Jack's jumps are automatic this time, but only work if there is another platform exactly in line with the one he's on in whichever direction he's moving, and this can only be up, down, left or right, not diagonal. This is where the 'tactics' the game's inlay spoke of come into play. Except it's not a tactical game, just a bit puzzley. All you need to do is simply move Jack around the screen collecting all the little money bags on each of the 40 stages. It can sometimes take a bit of messing around and flitting back and forth to work out how to reach certain monies owing to this weird gameplay mechanic but it's unsurprisingly the enemies that cause most of the problems. They are usually restricted to the platforms they originally appear on except for the odd chaotic enemy/stage where they are leaping all around the place as Jack can.

But most of the time they just pace back and forth on their platform which means, unlike the original game, you can find a 'safe space' (as people like to say nowadays) somewhere and have a breather. This is still not a great idea though, as the pesky things apparently 'evolve' from slow, weak ogre/sloth things to stronger armour-plated rhinos over time, and they also get faster the longer you leave them alone. You might be wondering what that now-unused jump button does here and this is a timely point to reveal that it's now a 'stab' button of all things. Yes, that's right - Jack can now stab the enemy creatures, though he has to do so repeatedly while walking towards the edge of a platform. Only then will they explode, but they will usually respawn immediately; sometimes on a different platform, sometimes right where they were before they exploded which is really helpful as you might imagine. There's nothing out of the ordinary for the time though, difficulty-wise.

The collision-detection is actually quite generous when you're moving quickly, and overall it's not a bad little platformer if you forget that it's meant to be a Bomb Jack title. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it wasn't even developed as one and just had the name slapped on it at the last minute. The player character doesn't look like him, it just looks like some (faceless) guy. If that doesn't bother you, it's a tricky-but-fun game with a pinch of puzzleyness to keep you on your toes. The level graphics are decent enough, with some famous landmarks among the backgrounds as in the first game (the game cycles through five in total), while the audio merely consists of a few reasonable effects, but it's fairly enjoyable to play in bursts and quite addictive, and quite good value on its budget re-release which is how I had it. Just make sure you tape some paper over the left part of the screen when playing!

RKS Score: 6/10

Gameplay Video: here's a video of the whole game being played by one of the talented fellows at Modern Retro Gaming News (check out their great channel here). Oh, and don't watch if you want to avoid spoilers!