Gamers of a certain age may remember the original James Pond, which graced a number of platforms including the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis; the sequel James Pond 2: Codename RoboCod has also been ported a lot, including a DS version in 2005. At its peak in the '90s the series was quite a hit in pop culture, with various cameos joining the main games in boosting its appeal.
Aside from all those re-releases of the sequel, the franchise has been largely quiet, barring a poorly received iOS game in 2011. That's set to change, however, with developer Gameware now picking up the license and teaming up with the original title's designer — Chris Sorrell — to work on an all-new project. The company is planning to fundraise through Kickstarter, with the campaign set to arrive "soon".
As Sorrell explains in the video below, the fundraiser will ultimately tell the team whether there's interest in the series returning. With a key figure from the original series involved there's perhaps ground for optimism that this could be a good quality release; you can keep track of the campaign on Twitter and Facebook, so here's hoping for Nintendo platforms to be included.
Comments 31
Robocod was an amazing game. I seem to remember it having lots of product placement but that might have just been me thinking of Zool, Cool Spot or that Fido Dido game.
I remember this game on the Megadrive. I didn't like it much.
I liked Robocod as well.
(Only played the first one on the Acorn Archimedes and didn't think much of it. It played well but it was boring).
@Nintenjoe64 Zool was full of Chupa Chups commercials, awsome game.
Zool was not too bad on PC or Amiga but it was rubbish on consoles.
@BF-Medic The 'sweetie' (or candy if you're American) level seems to have died a bit in modern gaming. It used to be as common as Grassy, Icy, Desert and Water levels are these days.
@unrandomsam I think the same might apply to Robocod. I have a feeling the frame-rate on the bouncy jelly level was terrible on the SNES.
Not too interested....
BRING BACK THE CHOCCY BICCIES!
its about time these games came back to be revamped to show us all how games are ment to be played love it
@Nintenjoe64 I only played Robocod on the Megadrive. Think it was a better game so I liked it. (Even though the first one on the Archimedes worked better I never thought it was a very good. Didn't even know the Archimedes had Robocod until about 5 mins ago).
bring back woodys world what a platformer
lionheart on the amiga these games would sell
@unrandomsam I think that console versions of Zool had to undergo a few changes from the Amiga game due to RAM limitations. The Super NES version was pretty buggy as well.
The Megadrive had almost the exact same CPU as the Amiga 500, so ports of Amiga games ended up being better in general than the Super NES.
@Nintenjoe64 Think it was full of Penguin choc biscuit stuff. I loved that game on the Amiga. I remember the sequel was pretty good too.
Ah I miss my Amiga
I remember seeing that game at the video store but I never played it.
I remember playing and liking the first two releases on the Genesis / Mega Drive, with the sequel being the superior release in my mind. It's nice to see some old 90's title characters get a reboot, but still not entirely exciting to me either way.
I still hope it does well if it ever materializes.
I played both the first two titles on the Megadrive and remember the second one as being OK. If a new one were to grace the Wii U I'd certainly check out reviews but I can't say I'm that excited.
@4tracker same here matey
did any 1 play lionheart on the amiga give me ur thoughts thanks
I wasn't that keen on the game, the main character reminded me of the koopas from Mario world! if they released a mega drive version of the game on wii-u VC then I'd download it.
I was thinking of this game last week when I was considering buying giana sisters, James pond robocod 2 on the amiga was awesome back in the day. Also my first post here so hi all
@nintenjoe64 Good sir, I point you in the direction of world three in the marvellous Kirby's Epic Yarn!
And Zool!!...... Now that takes me back. Bring back Zool!
i only played the ds one the controlls were terrible is it better in other versions
I, in no way, am faulting NintendoLife for this, as they can only report what info they are given, but am I the only one getting so tired of reading article after article of crowdfunding/kickstarter/indie 2d platformers. If it's not one of those it's a virtual console release. All that stuff is great as complimentary pieces but man, where are the retail games? We know about, what, 6 games total in 2014 and beyond? Again, not NLife's fault, I just hope we start hearing about new, big AAA retail games. A good amount are coming in 2013, but we have known about most of these for over a year. Let's get some new blood in here to get excited about!
(looking back at all those horrible memories of The Aquatic Games on Sega Genesis)
Oh god, no.
Bring it on! The Amiga versions of all three James Pond games were the best, so if they can capture that gameplay (shouldn't be too hard on modern hardware) then I'm in.
Ugh, I played the SNES one and thought it stunk. I've sort of lumped in every video game made in Europe for a couple decades with James Pond's level of — well, I'm saying too much now, aren't I.
Ugh. The cover art for those James Pond games are awful. I always figured that it was a cheap shovelware series judging by the covers that I've seen over the years.
^ Yeah I never liked them because they were poor mans platformers compared to SMB and many others.
I loved the series on the Amiga, even James Pond aquatic games was a laugh.
Amiga ports sucked on the SNES. (Some were ok on the Megadrive the great games were pretty good still on the Megadrive).
Best versions of most of the Jap arcade ports at this sort of time were on the X68000.
SNES games were only good if they were designed for it specifically and not ports.
(Still think the Archimedes version of Lemmings is the best.)
Most of the good European developers were killed and gutted by such as EA / Sony.
yep i remember this, im getting to old
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