The Aquatic Games

The Aquatic Games Starring James Pond and the Aquabats
centered
European Mega Drive cover art
Developer(s)Vectordean
Publisher(s)Millennium Interactive
Electronic Arts (Mega Drive)
Seika Corp. (SNES)
Producer(s)Kevin Shrapnell
Designer(s)Steve Bak
Programmer(s)Steve Bak
Artist(s)Sean Nicholls
Composer(s)Richard Joseph
Platform(s)Amiga, Sega Genesis, Super NES
Release
Genre(s)Platform game
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Aquatic Games Starring James Pond and the Aquabats, also known as The Super Aquatic Games Starring the Aquabats on the Super NES, is a 1992 sports video game developed by Vectordean and published by Millennium Interactive. It featured pseudo-Olympic sports starring the video game character James Pond, better known for his series of side-scrolling platform games. It was the last game to be released for the Amiga A500. Though the next game (James Pond 3: Operation Starfish) also appeared on the Amiga, it was only compatible with the newer range of 32-bit Amigas (such as the A1200) which used the AGA chipset.

Gameplay

In-game screenshot (Amiga)

The Aquatic Games Starring James Pond and the Aquabats is an arcade sports game. The game is an aquatic-themed parody of games like Konami's Track & Field.

The game contains classical music pieces Ode to Joy (from Beethoven's 9th) in the title screen and Schubert's fish song "Die Forelle" during certain events. The rest of the music is composed by Richard Joseph.

Reception

GamePro gave the SNES version a generally positive review. They commented that the simplistic gameplay, cartoony graphics, and humorous sound effects make it a game that younger players would enjoy, while older players would find it unappealing.[4]

In contrast, Classic Game Room's Mark Bussler reviewed it negatively as "a very half-baked game at best". He made an exception to the Feeding Time mini-game, "which would have made a good Atari 2600 game back in the day".[5]

References

  1. ^ "Electronic Arts Preview". MegaTech. August 1992. p. 19. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
  2. ^ "Around the Corner". Sega Visions. August 1992. p. 62. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
  3. ^ Pemberton, Daniel (October 1992). "The Aquatic Games". Game Zone. No. 12. pp. 44–45.
  4. ^ "ProReviews". GamePro. No. 51. IDG. October 1993. p. 100.
  5. ^ Classic Game Room review, May 18, 2017 Archived September 7, 2020, at the Wayback Machine