Platform Game Evolution: Too Hard to be Good? Pt 2

“Another visitor. Stay a while, stay forever!” blasts the speech as you start Impossible Mission

For the 2nd of our look at old platformer’s we have moved on a little and have something that not only looks more of a modern platformer, but also retains elements of games like Bubble Bobble. Impossible Mission pits you versus the evil Professor Elvin Atombender to prevent him from hacking computers in order to threaten National Security. The game was released by Epyx originally and has been ported to a number of formats including most recently the Nintendo DS and is a game that has stood the test of time.

Much like Dynamite Dan, Impossible Mission uses a random layout each time and as such you will never get exactly the same game, even though the principle is the same. You must infiltrate Atombender’s Secret Bunker and find parts of Microfiche to assemble a password that will allow you to find Atombender and defeat his nefarious plans.

The game is a step up from Dynamite Dan’s colourful but simple graphics in a number of ways. Firstly you are entering a varied dungeon of a sort with interconnecting rooms linked by a user controllable lift. The backgrounds are no longer just black and there is much more detail such as stone cladding giving the impression that you are in some kind of impenetrable fortress that usually only appears on the Silver Screen. Corridors are coloured and each room will have a coloured background to boot. From then on in you have detailed appliances such as computers, book bases and desks to search in order for you to find the pieces of the microfiche for the password. Other nice touches include vertical fades when entering rooms.

“Destroy Him My Robots”

The stand out graphically is the main character. Looking for all the world to be a rotoscoped character, the main character moves and looks like a proper human. Running and somersaulting where necessary to avoid Atombender’s robot drones. It’s a bit like watching Prince of Persia or even Conrad from Flashback years before they were on the scene and is something to behold because it plays so well.

However, things aren’t as easy as they seem. Impossible Mission is exactly that, impossible. It isn’t really, but, it is a hard platformer. Despite racing against time as opposed to having a number of lives, the game is difficult. Not unfairly so, but there are things that make it maddeningly frustrating. There are a number of different types of robots who will prevent you from achieving your aim. Some fire electricity, some rush you, some do both. There is also a Black Ball of Death that follows you around much like the weather balloon out of The Prisoner. Once you have got the microfiche you then have to reassemble that all against the time limit. Death costs you time and the robots are not going to make it an easy task.

Comparatively it’s a massive evolution in platform gaming and points the way to something more modern, despite its age. It has still the wow factor and replayabilty to draw you in. You will stay forever if it lets you.

Next up we will take a look at something more late 1980’s and see what happened to the platform games then.

Games: Impossible Mission, Platforms: TBA, Genres: Action, Publishers: Epyx, Developers: Dennis Cadwell