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The orange mutant fish strikes again! And this time, he really means business… Saffya comes in once again to take a look.

After all the madness happening in Robocod and the Aquatic Games, James Pond is yet again called up to go and get Dr. Maybe, who is up to no good again. He’s making a recruitment of rats from Rat City to go up to the Moon and collect as much cheese as possible so Maybe can take over the cheese market and make megabucks from it.

Little Jimmy doesn’t need his once important robotic suit anymore because he becomes fully adapted to dry land, but is given a pair of anti-gravity shoes so that 1) he won’t float about on the Moon, and 2) he can walk on walls and ceilings!

He actually looks cute rather than in previous years, which is a good thing. But still, that won’t make you wanna pick him up and hug him for all eternity, because he can now pack a punch! Yes, James has a new ability to punch anything that stands in his way, as well as the general move of stamping on little enemies. And let’s not forget that he can also attack with his merciless ***!

On to the game now. Objective – Reach the end of a level and break the beacon to pass it. On some levels, you have to collect um, TEACUPS, to activate the beacon. The likes of small mice that either carry bombs or guns that shoot fruit, chicks that explode like grenades, rats with helmets on or rats that try to run you over with a tank or a jeep will try anything to stop you.

The over 100 levels are yet again imaginary and consist of various types of food, such as cheese (yuck!), ice cream, custard, fruit etc. All except for a few, including one called the ‘Fungal Jungle’. All the rest are named silly names such as ‘Slitherpool’, ‘Hot Custard Springs’, ‘Neapolitan Peninsula’, you name it.

I only know some of the game because my version has some technical problems (it’s on an emulator). This is a good bit. You are in a cheese level (man, I hate cheese) called ‘Gouda Gully’ where you can find an item – a TV set. You pick it up, and the screen gets a green sepia tone. But, you can throw it, and smash it up! Yes, be a vandal. A ghost comes out of its ruins and you can jump on it to get higher. You still need an umbrella though to make it to the end of the level.

Wait, there’s more! Along the way, you collect crescent moons (a thousand of ‘em gives you a life), which can be found either in James’ sight or in Mario like boxes with exclamation marks, like in the previous game. Other sorts of surprises materialize from those boxes, such as rocks, pieces of fruit or cakes for use in a gun, springs that attach to his feet so he can jump higher, dynamite – anything!

A second character is playable on certain levels. Have you played ‘Rolo to the Rescue’, a game that was brought to the public by the same guys that made this game? Do you remember when you freed those cute little forest animals, and you can switch from Rolo to any of the animals you rescued? Well, that’s what kinda happens in this game.

The second player is a frog named Finnus, an agent you must rescue at some point. When you do, there will be an icon at those certain levels that shows his face. Touch it, and he’ll appear, and you can now control him instead of Pond. He can’t run as fast as James, but he can jump much higher, and can store things in his mouth to take back to his master. Just touch the icon again, which is of JP now, and James will be controllable again. Pretty smart huh?

The levels are distributed in a world map, which means that you can return to a level as many times as you wish fro whatever reason. One or more worlds open when you complete one, and with a special device, you can visit any of those that open. It’s not like Sonic or most other platformers, where you go straight to the next level when you’ve finished one.
What’s more, there’s a save system that uses passwords consisting of coloured items, such as ‘green cat’, ‘yellow frog’, you get the picture? But still, they should have thrown in a battery back up in O.S, for one mistake and it’s bye-bye to all your precious, hard-earned progress. Shameful.

Yes, the game does suffer from jerkiness, yes, it is too massive, and my version has technical problems, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the greatest video games that lie on the face of our planet. If ever there was a guy that disses this in your face, tell them to sit on ‘Super Mario Bros’ and rotate.

Look at it! You can’t say that the graphics are bad, and the sound does not wanna make you listen to other music fresh from your stereo, not on the Mega Drive anyway. Believe me, it’s worth all the rummaging in the pawn shops you may ever do to obtain it, Amiga, SNES or Mega Drive versions (or Genesis for all you Americans out there) alike. Just beware of any saucy or cocky comments that appear in the game.

Come on, be one of us. Have James Pond 3 – Operation Starf15h.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/02, Updated 09/17/02