Never tell me the odds!

Depending on your appreciation for Harrison Ford's Han Solo persona (and the addition of lewd jokes that would never have gained approval from George Lucas), you'll either love or loath Divide by Zero's point and click adventure game, Innocent Until Caught. Jack T. Ladd (groan) is an arrogant, wise-cracking intergalactic thief who needs to raise a wad of moolah at short notice to get the interstellar tax agency off his back. Failure to meet the target within 28 days is punishable by extermination so it's safe to say he's fairly well-motivated. 

Entertainment value mainly arises through playing 'spot the pop-culture allusion' or relishing the wry delivery of some of the wittier lines of dialogue. Elsewhere Psygnosis seem embarrassingly fixated on cringey innuendo in a desperate effort to appeal to a more mature audience, or perhaps an immature adolescent one? Whatever their objective, I'm not entirely sure it hits the target.

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Games coder Steve Howard discusses the console platformers, Terminator 2 and No Escape

I have the honour of interviewing programmer Steve Howard regarding two movie license console platformers he contributed to back in the '90s. An unexpected consequence of this nostalgia-nudging was the rare revelation of a collection of Terminator 2 cheats that had lain dormant for nearly three decades!

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Now if we make a stand, we'll find our promised land

The gnarly Shadow cast by Psygnosis' infamous Beast of Amiga origin spread far and wide to every conceivable system during the zenith of its beastliness. Peer outside your bedroom window on a sunny day and even now you'll see it creeping up the drainpipe to infiltrate your shiny new PlayStation 9, or whatever the current model is. So, that's one way of suggesting Shadow of the Beast has cultivated quite a substantial legacy over the years since its inception. Other alternatives are available I'm sure.

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The mane event

It would be tricky to assert from a gameplay perspective that the cutesy zoological Amiga platformer, Brian the Lion, was the king of the genre's jungle. While it does nothing to advance the field's tired tropes, every wheel Brian reinvents is without doubt stunningly beautiful, and technically dazzling. Designed by the same outfit who brought us the visually sublime Shadow of the Beast, you might assume this would be the case, except the only member of the team to share credits across the two projects is producer, Martin Edmondson. Regardless, Brian the Lion oozes that intangibly elusive console-esque feel-good factor sorely absent from most of the competition. It's the goofily endearing facial expressions and affectionate humorous touches that tip the balance towards amiable benevolence. In the cold, hard light of impartial day, it shouldn't be enough. Yet is purr-fectly roar-some.

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Come on twist again, twistin' time is here

While money can't buy you love, you'll discover that it's extremely handy should you find yourself mooching around one of Blood Money's munition emporiums in the market for helicopter/submarine/spaceship/jetpack enhancements. First there was Menace, now DMA Design offer us the chance to indulge our penchant for wanton capitalism in this hard-as-nails vertically/horizontally scrolling shmup, culminating in one of the Amiga's most memorably disappointing, twisty finale sequences.

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Let's get physics-al

Alien, teardrop-shaped blob, Puggsy, began life as an unexplained visitor from elsewhereland, the unlikely star of his own rolling Amiga demo, before evolving into a fully playable, platforming protagonist devised by future LEGO gurus, Travellers' Tales. Fundamentally, Puggsy is a reimagining of the puzzle-adventure Dizzy concept, albeit remarkable for its introduction of convincing physics effects. Fantastic graphics and audio, a pre-rendered intro and six humongous bosses complete the spectacle.

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Give me Mr Fuji and paper mache

Leander is one of the many convincing retorts to critics who claim the Amiga never hosted a decent platformer. This one is exceptional for its responsive controls, wondrously atmospheric aesthetics and audio, endearing in-game cameos featuring other Psygnosis characters and its accomplished emulation of Japanese console-style fantasy-action games. Being a human knight, Leander's locomotion is accordingly more natural, unhurried and methodical than say, an anthropomorphic hyperactive supergiraffe, making it more akin to something like Gods. Set in ye olde mystical worlde of yesteryear when dragons ruled the skies and magicians were demi-gods, the environments, our attire, weaponry, transport and enemies are appropriately low-tech, which is far from a complaint. That's the theme, and it resonates loud enough to drown out all the feeble efforts that gave the Amiga a bad reputation.

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The sea will grow larger with our fall

For reasons that now escape me, I explain and review the most popular and ubiquitous puzzle game of all time. One that certainly needs no introduction or explanation, Lemmings. Who knows, maybe some aliens who have been living under a distant rock in a galaxy far away will find it interesting.

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It's only forever, not long at all

Agony is possibly the Amiga's most aesthetically appealing scrolling shoot 'em up... and even back then in the '90s, it certainly wasn't short of opposition. Its the alluring owl protagonist - an escapee from David Bowie's Labyrinth musical, fantasy movie - that predominantly draws attention, owing to its meticulously animated motion, at the expense of rigidly unconvincing enemies and often static backgrounds, sadly considered an afterthought. Music is correspondingly memorable, cycling theatrically between bombastic percussion numbers, and mellow meditation.

Meanwhile, quality of design mechanics is more open to heated debate, some die-hard fans of the genre arguing the game is far too easy, crucially lacking variety. An audio-visual phenomenon, a spectacle to be marvelled at before turning one's attention to more challenging fare.

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Wrath of the Beast

Assuming you're a nerdy retrogaming Amiga aficionado, you may have spotted that Abstrax's 2D scrolling platformer, Wrath of the Demon (published in 1990), bears an uncanny resemblance to Shadow of the Beast developed by Reflections, unleashed by Psygnosis in 1989.

I conduct a thorough empirical analysis to discover what happens when you perform a complete teardown autopsy of each, forget to draft out blueprints and subsequently reassemble them. Turns out you end up with two identical games. Scientific proof enclosed, feel free to study and digest.

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Big mistake!

Arnie Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero is a more intelligent, fun and intriguing movie than people give it credit for. In the 1993 fantasy, action-comedy blockbuster, the titular Arnie plays Los Angeles cop, Jack Slater. Not in the movie itself, but the movie franchise showcased within Last Action Hero that teenager, Danny Madigan, is particularly enamoured with watching at the cinema to escape his humdrum existence.

Arnie plays himself in the 'real' world of New York City where Danny also resides with his harried, single-parent, widowed mother, Irene. Both realities collide when projectionist, Nick, gifts Danny a golden ticket stub that inserts him into Jack's far more sensational, celluloid life. Danny thereon takes it upon himself to awaken his new cop-buddy to the alien concept that he's living in a fictional, Hollywood fabrication, whilst assisting him in bringing to task Jack's main antagonist, Vivaldi, his sinister henchman, Mr Benedict, and a rain-mac-cloaked 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' style psychopath known as the 'Ripper'. As long as the independent, disparate worlds remain such, the situation is manageable, the real world safe from despicable movie villains. What complicates matters is Benedict discovering the mystical power of the golden ticket and exploiting it to transport himself across the boundary between fact and fiction.

Fundamentally Last Action Hero is a tongue-in-cheek satirical parody of the action movie genre and stereotypical, muscle-bound heroes such as Arnie himself, Sly, Chuck Norris, Jean Claud Van Damme and so on. Bursting with knowing winks and astute observations, it's refreshing to see that Arnie is sufficiently self-effacing to mock himself and the glittering career that built his legacy.

A major disappointment then that the accompanying Amiga game developed by Dome Software and published by Psygnosis is such an embarrassing joke. It's a 2D, side-scrolling brawler in the vein of Final Fight, though otherwise has no redeeming features. An uneventful, button-bashing affair that can be beaten with your eyes shut, assuming we don't doze off in the meantime. Arnie must tackle armed combatants with no weapons, at the insistence of Columbia Pictures who, ironically, were concerned about his status as a role model for children.

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Don't bother to buckle up - you may not want to survive this

Veteran mountain ranger partners Sylvester Stallone and Michael Rooker part company over who is responsible for the fatally failed rescue of Michael's girlfriend. Eight months later, returning to the Colorado Rockies to face his demons and reconcile with girlfriend, Janine Turner, Sly is manipulated into aiding and abetting the heist of a U.S. Treasury plane at the menacing behest of supervillain, John Lithgow. I've never trusted him since watching Santa Claus the movie so knew what to expect from Cliffhanger. In order to survive the precarious ordeal, Michael and Sly are forced to put their smouldering differences aside to tackle a common enemy. A few in fact, including that muscly bloke from London's Burning, Craig Fairbrass.

Released to coincide with the movie in 1993 were various console and computer video games. Here my focus is the latecomer to the party that left us dangling for a further year; an action-platformer developed by Spidersoft and published by Psygnosis for the Amiga. Is it as reprehensible as the YouTube ranters would have you believe? Does it bear any relation to the movie that's most notable for its accomplished cinematography and breathtaking scenery?

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Someone to watch over me

In 2022 ex-marine Ray Liotta is sentenced to life imprisonment on a remote tropical island for a crime he did commit; killing his commanding officer. Yes, it's not your 100% lily-white hero versus pure evil dictatorship action flick. It's more complicated and intriguing than that. In some parts of the world, No Escape was alternatively known as Escape From Absolom, either of which should give you a clue as to the driving force behind the movie. It's kind of like Lord of the Flies starring adults who should know better.

No Escape wasn't a roaring success at the box office upon release in 1994, yet still spawned a licensed console video game for the SNES and SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis. A platformer reminiscent of Flashback with similar puzzle elements to keep the old grey matter ticking over in between hacking away at the fire buttons. An infuriatingly difficult, often overlooked title, curiously embued with more depth than a casual glance would suggest.

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I Know Kung-Faux

Contrary to common wisdom, you don't have to visit a parallel universe to witness Ted 'Theodore' Logan playing Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula. It truly-really-genuinely happened back in 1992 and performed pretty well at the box office. Produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola believe it or not.

A year later, Keanu was further immortalised in pixels courtesy of Psygnosis. First in a platform game for the SNES and SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis and once again in 1994, allowing Amiga owners to indulge their bloodlust too.

I gingerly crack open the musty crypt to take a peek at them all, paying special attention to the Amiga incarnation, linking its key elements to their movie-based corollaries.

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