"Not as fun as James Pond II: Robocod but a decent game nonetheless"

In james pond 1 you were a fish that simply swam around collecting things, similar to an aquatic Pac Man. In the sequel you gained a suit that allowed Mr. Pond to stretch his body to dizzying heights, which was a unique innovation for the time. Now in this installment, the amount of levels has multiplied greatly and there are a good amount of powerups that you can pick up as well like some Super Mario 3-esque knock off suits. Now that the general intro is out of the way, I'll get into the specifics.

Graphics -7/10-

The graphics in JP3 are solid and some of the bosses are pretty impressive, other than that it doesn't pull out any crazy mode 7 graphics like you would see in Gunstar Heroes. Lots of bright colors for the most part, the backgrounds could have definitely used some sprucing up. The character sprites look decent enough and James has a fair amount of animation to him during his running/punching/shooting/and jumping. All around JP3 is pretty easy on the eyes but it certainly doesn't pull any punches like some of the more graphically impressive genesis games.

Sound -7/10-

I'll be honest, it's been around 5 or so years since I last played this game so the BG music and sounds definitely aren't as fresh in my mind as they should be . What I can remember about the music though is that it is sort of creepy sounding and differs alot from the bumblegum tunes of the 1st and 2nd installments. The sound effects are a bit harsh and maybe too prominent but they get the job done so I don't really have too much against them.

Control -6/10-

I wanted to get this part of the game out of the way before I went onto the gameplay portion. The controls really could have used some tweaking. It's not that control responsiveness is a problem, it's just that the controls simply don't "feel" fun. For anyone whose played Sonic or Mario, you know that the controls are great and there's a certain joy in simply moving your character around. Not so here in JP3, when he jumps it feels like he has weights on his feet and when you run down a hill you'll basically lose control and run into an enemy or obstacle. I think if they just would've made his jump a bit higher and have some more loft/control then this would've been a very different and much better game.

Gameplay -7/10-

The most important part of any game. I'm probably being a bit lenient due to nostalgia but it is a decent game overall. You can tell that a decent amount of work went into creating the levels and there are a number of innovative items that can be used. For example you grab an umbrella and you can glide, if you grab a weight your jump will be lower but you can jump farther while running, a gun that shoots different fruit ammo like apples/oranges/etc, tnt, and a lot more stuff I can't happen to remember. There are also a couple of fruit suits you can get that offer protection from water as well as giving you certain abilities. The general gameplay is relatively difficult platforming with some "puzzles" to solve and Boss battles. Overall it's not very varied in the levels but the items and suits help to mix things up. The game is let down by the difficulty, which is almost wholly due to the controls.

---Final Word---

I would give this game a thumbs up for nostalgia alone, there's also enough solid platforming in there to warrant a purchase but be ready to compete with slippery controls. You can find a complete copy for about 5$ online and at that price it's worthy purchase to add to the collection, although I definitely wouldn't go as far as to call it a "must have" or even a top quality title. Also if you try this and like it I would highly recommend James Pond 2 as it has better controls and more interesting levels.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/07