ROD LAND (AMI)
Whilst the Amiga never quite nailed down a platformer mascot of Mario or Sonic proportions, Commodore’s home computer played host to an army of charming equivalents. Whilst the 16-bit consoles were busily embracing side-scrolling platformers, the Amiga continued to thrive on single-screen affairs that built on the groundwork of eighties arcade games.
One of the finest examples of this is Random Access’ lovely arcade port of Rod Land. It’s cute, pretty and dreamy. A literal fairytale, as two intrepid sprites, Tam and Rit, must scale a forty-floor tower to save their mother, who is held captive by a malevolent being that essentially amounts to a furry Transformer. Each screen is a delight, mixing inviting-looking fantasy fare with collectable fruits and flowers, sprinklings of fairy dust and beautifully-drawn, cartoon creatures. It may look all sunshine ‘n’ rainbows, but underneath this pleasant facade lurks a fiendish, challenging game that’s very moreish.
Flying enemies can home-in diagonally on the player's position, making them a real hazard.
Each level concludes either when the player dispatches all the enemies or collects all the flowers. But here’s the clever part: collecting the flowers and leaving a few enemies untouched results in them turning temporarily into bonus-giving plant creatures. Think Pac Man and the frightened ghosts. Each vanquished monster drops a bauble with a letter from the word ‘EXTRA’, which the player has to snap up in double-quick time. Assemble them all and an extra life is the reward.
This is where risk and reward plays a big part in Rod Land. Evading enemies long enough to collect the flowers is more taxing than it sounds and fraught with danger. Even by the standards of the time, the game leaves precious little room for mistakes, affording just three lives with which to beat the forty levels and four boss fights, with no continues. Add to this one-hit deaths as standard and you’ll need to plan which levels are best for chancing your arm at grabbing those bonus lives.
This is where risk and reward plays a big part in Rod Land. Evading enemies long enough to collect the flowers is more taxing than it sounds and fraught with danger. Even by the standards of the time, the game leaves precious little room for mistakes, affording just three lives with which to beat the forty levels and four boss fights, with no continues. Add to this one-hit deaths as standard and you’ll need to plan which levels are best for chancing your arm at grabbing those bonus lives.
Rod Land's bosses are super cute, but don't be fooled: beating them requires concentration and quick thinking
Indeed, a lack of continues is the only serious drawback I can level at Rod Land. That, and the occasional cheap death as your wand passes through a nearby enemy and latches the one behind, leaving you vulnerable to losing a life. With the leverage of a few more lives or continues, the game would have operated even better, because the difficulty curve is smartly judged. The trouble is the boss fights, whilst charming (comprising a rather eclectic mix of crocodiles, a whale and an elephant), still take a fair bit of working out. Slogging up the tower, only to be killed by attack patterns you couldn’t have seen coming is just brutal, especially the last act of the four-phase final boss.
Rod Land has some really cool touches, not least the ability to plant and climb a ladder. This handy utility can be combined with platforms and other ladders, creating new paths, shortcuts and escape routes from pursuing enemies. It adds a satisfying dash of tactics to the action. You’ll need to make smart use of it too, as the challenge from enemies gradually increases. Some of them fire projectiles, or fly, or even duplicate. Take too long finishing a level and they mutate into angry clouds and start homing in on the fairies. Not a problem if there’s just a couple left, but a bunch of them can make for a tricky time of things.
Rod Land has some really cool touches, not least the ability to plant and climb a ladder. This handy utility can be combined with platforms and other ladders, creating new paths, shortcuts and escape routes from pursuing enemies. It adds a satisfying dash of tactics to the action. You’ll need to make smart use of it too, as the challenge from enemies gradually increases. Some of them fire projectiles, or fly, or even duplicate. Take too long finishing a level and they mutate into angry clouds and start homing in on the fairies. Not a problem if there’s just a couple left, but a bunch of them can make for a tricky time of things.
Beating the game takes plenty of practice and with high-scores to be had, there’s good incentive to return in the short term. However, a lack of options means that the long-term alternative to trying to finish the game, is to do so with a friend in the rather likeable two-player co-op. ‘Likeable’ is a fitting way to describe Rod Land as a whole: a fun, beautifully presented, tightly designed platformer that isn’t overly commercialised. Put simply, it’s well worth a play.
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VERDICT
"a lack of continues is the only serious drawback I can level at Rod Land... A fun, beautifully presented, tightly designed platformer that isn’t overly commercialised. Put simply, it’s well worth a play." OVERALL: 8/10 |