Bond is out on his own and out for revenge! That is how the blurb on the cover of the box describes the theme for the latest game of the film. For anyone who has not seen the film, the plot goes like this:
Bond and his friend Felix (a CIA agent) capture a wanted drugs baron called Sanchez. Felix then gets married and everything is hunky-dory until Sanchez escapes, kills Felix's wife and feeds Felix to a shark. As you can tell, Sanchez is a very nasty piece of work. When Bond finds out he hits the roof. He goes after Sanchez despite being told to leave him alone by the British government. His licence to kill is revoked but that does not stop our hero. After a long series of events, he managed to destroy Sanchez's empire with the help of a very beautiful and capable woman.
The game follows the plot of the film very closely. There are five sections to the game each with monochrome graphics which are varied and well defined. The screen scrolls vertically downwards on each section. The scrolling and sprite movement is smooth and fast.
The first section has you flying a helicopter chasing Sanchez's jeep. You must fire at the jeep many times before it blows up. Tall buildings need to be avoided and gun emplacements blown up. This section is quite easy to complete after one or two goes.
The next section has you on foot carrying a gun with limited bullets. When you press the fire key a gun sight appears near you. You can rotate it around you until it is pointing in the direction you want to shoot. When you let go of the fire key the bullet is loosed. This method allows for sharp shooting but takes a little while to get used to. You must shoot all of Sanchez's men and make your way upwards to where Felix is waiting with a helicopter. The men are all armed and spray bullets all over the place. This section is the best in the whole game.
The third section has you controlling a helicopter with Bond dangling on a rope. Your task is to guide Bond onto the tail of Sanchez's plane which moves all over the screen. When he is in place hit the fire key and the plane will be captured. It can be a bit tricky, but is by no means impossible.
In the next section, Bond is in the water. Hectic is the only way to describe the action here. You must avoid the boats and bullets by either dodging them or going underwater. You can only stay under for a very short while. There are bags of drugs to destroy and divers to fight with. When you have done away with a diver, you keep his harpoon gun. With this, you can fire a line to the water plane which is at the top of the screen. You need to hit one of the skis to escape. A great deal of skill is required to complete this section.
Finally, Bond is driving a tanker full of petrol. The objective is to race along the road and catch up with Sanchez's tanker and destroy it. There are other tankers to smash on the way and this is very difficult to accomplish.
Bond has four lives in each game. During each section, there is a bar showing the level of damage Bond has sustained. When the bar reaches its full length, you lose a life.
The graphics are very detailed if a little colourless. I particularly like the objects which litter the ground in the second section. Overall, the game is very playable with the sections getting progressively harder. The only gripe I have is that the bullets seem to follow you sometimes as the screen scrolls. This is only a minor point and you soon learn to compensate for it.
In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and fully recommend it.