RVG Forum

Still regarded by many as the greatest football game of all time, when the original Sensi (as it became known) was released for the ST and Amiga it set the standard that all future footy games would be judged by. The Jaguar got the International version adding the World Cup tournament from the USA in 1994. The game is viewed from a top down perspective but unlike other games of this ilk the players themselves are shown from behind or the front depending which side you are on. They are also very small which allows you to see a large amount of the pitch as you play. This allows you to perform accurate long-range passes, crosses and get players into better defensive positions. The way the game is played like this is what made Sensi the massive success it became. There had never been a football game that offered so much realism combined with simple intuitive gameplay. The other console versions of Sensi were criticised by many home computer users as being too easy because the ball just stuck to your feet allowing you to simply dribble round opposition players, I was even able to score with the keeper on the Megadrive version! They also added a shoot button that always directed the ball straight to goal no matter where you were on the pitch. Thankfully in this Jag version there is difficulty modes that allow you to play the game like the original computer version as well as like the other console versions. The AI is also much improved here too, no more dodgy keepers or stationary defenders. Sensi isn’t about fancy graphics or sound its about pure gameplay and that alone makes this one of the finest sports games of its age.

Skycopter is not so much of a game a more an interesting footnote in the history of the Atari Jaguar. The game (I use that term loosely) was actually programmed by Mario Perdue who also programmed Breakout 2000 for the Jaguar. It was designed for those kids rides that you see in your local supermarkets and shopping centres where parents can dump whinging toddlers to stop them crying for 5 minutes. Carousel Entertainment developed a series of rides for different retailers that included an Atari Jaguar inside them and displayed the action on a screen complete with that companies logo. All you do in Skycopter is fly your chopper though the sky for a limited amount of time. As you fly planes, air balloons and blimps pass by but you can’t actually hit any of them as they never get close enough. Your score increases as you play for basically doing nothing, to please the kids I guess “look mummy I got the high score!”. This has recently been made available to buy on cartridge by Goat Store after they officially licensed the game from Carousel themselves. Not sure why you would want to bother though unless you are some sort of mental completist.

From the same team that brought us the wonderful Alien Vs. Predator comes Skyhammer, a game originally due for release by Atari but cancelled at last minute when they went under before being resurrected by Songbird. Set in a futuristic cyberpunk world, that is very reminiscent of Blade Runner, you are a Skyhammer pilot who has been sent out into the hostile zone to defeat and stop the evil corporations trying to take over the world using sophisticated computer viruses. Your craft is equipped with shields, different weapons and a handy map / radar. As the world is 3D you can fly in any direction and the action takes place both down in the city and up above the roofs of the skyscrapers. Lots of careful navigating is required to fly around the tight streets but when you are up in the sky you are completely open to attack, this means it requires two very distinct skills to play properly. Graphically the game is outstanding, as far as the Jaguar is concerned this is probably in the top 5. Using 100% textured polygons with a good frame rate this really is a game to show off the often untapped power of the console. The game also has a brilliant soundtrack too, which fits the cyberpunk theme perfectly. Skyhammer is not an easy game but is certainly a rewarding one and should definitely have a place in anyone’s Jag collection.

One of the many after market releases for the Jaguar by Songbird this platformer was originally supposed to be part of Ocean Software’s catalogue. Soccer Kid originated on the Amiga before being converted to pretty much every platform of the time. Like many platformers of this time like Cool Spot, Zool and Global Gladiators it also had heavy sponsorship and advertising, in this case breakfast cereal Golden Grahams is the product of choice. In the most part Soccer Kid is a pretty generic platform game with each stage set in a different country round the world. It does have one original feature though in the form of the actual football alluded to by the name of the game. The ball is used to defeat the bad guys, a nice change from the usual jumping on their heads. Your character can dribble, shoot and do tricks with his ball. The hardest thing about this game is using the ball effectively, it’s all too easy to just keep booting it and leave yourself defenceless. Graphically this game is nice and colourful and each stage represents the country very well too but it doesn’t really look that much better than the Amiga original. The sound is very typical for a game of this genre (read plinky plonky tunes and bouncy effects). If you like platformers then you will get a real kick out of Soccer Kid, the rest of us will probably just find it to be yet another frustrating example of the genre.

Space War 2000 is a brilliant 3D update of the ancient Atari arcade game that was itself based on one of the oldest video games ever made. The basic gameplay idea is still exactly the same, to fly through space taking out the rival space craft, think of it basically as Combat in Space! Featuring some Tempest 2000 style psychedelic effects including the head of Lance Lewis, Atari tester most famous for being the Marine in Alien Vs. Predator, with 3 eyes! All the in-game graphics use texture mapped polygons and look fantastic. While the game is not quite complete and does crash occasionally there is actually a lot here that can be played. It’s mission based and has you flying around taking out enemy ships with the help of a useful radar. It actually plays much like the classic Star Raiders. The game also has some great music and a few gameplay options, although they don’t all work, including a split screen 2-player mode! It’s rumoured that this game was never finished because Atari thought Battlesphere showed more promise but its such a shame that a game this complete was just abandoned, especially as its so impressive. If you are a Jaguar owner then you can do a lot worse than pick this title up.

For the history of this game and Carousel’s other title then see my review of Skycopter rather than me repeating it all over again. The first thing I noticed about this game is that on the quite nice title screen it is actually subtitled “Racing Simulator”, I wonder if they actually realised how much they are taking the piss with that statement. All you do in Speedster II (god knows what happened to the first game) is drive your racing car along a road for a limited amount of time. As you drive along you have to avoid the odd obstacle like traffic cone or an oil slick, some speech even tells you to “watch out!”. There are also some road side objects like cows, that “moo”, sheep, that go “baa” and also the odd building. There are also things that fly over your head too like birds, planes and helicopters that you are also told to look out for, no idea why as it’s impossible to ever hit them! This certainly makes it more playable and a little more interactive than its brother Skycopter but not much. But what it gains there it loses in other areas with the rubbish graphics and complete lack of the illusion of speed, your car must be stuck in first gear. This has recently been made available to buy on cartridge by Goat Store after they officially licensed the game from Carousel themselves. Not sure why you would want to bother though unless you are some sort of mental completist.

This game is a strange one because it was absolutely slaughtered by the video game press but is widely regarded as one of the finest games on the system by Jag owners, who's right? Let's find out. Programmed by a French team called Shen this is a motorcycle racer in true Super Hang-On tradition with loads of country based tracks, bike selection and even a split screen 2-player mode. Thanks to the save feature on Jag carts this game also keeps track of all the course records as you set them and lets you enter your name! While the game may at first look at bit 16-bit it takes a while for you to truly appreciate it. Ok the roadside objects are a bit sparse and the buildings look a bit dumb but Super Burnout is incredibly fast and very smooth with loads of colour and a real sense of actually racing. But its best graphical feature is the way it changes from day to night as you play. The sun sets and rises, day turns to night and the moon comes out, even the headlamps on your bike come on as its starts to get dark. This is all done so subtly and really adds effect to the game. Sound wise SB is unbeatable, the music is some of the best you will hear in a Jag game and when you combine that with speech and roaring effects you are onto a winner. Overall Super Burnout looks the part, sounds the part and plays like a dream, this is the best racing game on the Jag and simply un-missable.

Never before in my life have I seen a game that looks so damn good in screenshots but plays so horribly (ok maybe Rise Of The Robots too). Supercross 3D was a 1995 release for the Jaguar when Atari were trying to compete with the new Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. The story goes that Jack Tramiel ordered that all 3D games must have texture mapping so they wouldn’t look inferior to their 32-bit counterparts. The big problem with this was that it obviously hindered the performance on a console with no extra hardware to do this. That said there really is no excuse for just how bad the frame rate is in this game. I am sure the UK based programmers Tiertex could have done a far better job had they tried. The game itself is just a dirt bike racer where you drive around series of tracks trying to beat your opponents. The tracks have jumps and dips as well as bends to contend with so the screen has to move around a lot making the frame rate even worse. The biggest shame is that I really do believe this could have been a good game but trying to race at 5 frames per second is more than frustrating for even the most ardent of Jag fans.

In Syndicate you are in charge of a self-named corporation in a dark futuristic cyberpunk styled world. Using teams of up to four cyborg agents you take part in a series of deadly missions that include assassinations, infiltration, theft and mind control. The game's objective is to establish world-wide dominance with the established syndicate, one territory at a time, while engaging and eliminating rival syndicates and stopping any internal mutinies. As the player progresses through the game, they must manage the research and development of new weaponry and cyborg upgrades. The player has only limited funds, requiring taxation of the conquered territories while ensuring that they are not so over-taxed that they revolt against the player. The player begins the game with simple pistols, progressing through increasingly destructive weaponry that includes Uzis, mini-guns, flame throwers, sniper rifles, time bombs, lasers and the enormously destructive rocket launcher. The most unique feature of the Jaguar version is that it allows you to zoom in and out of the action. This is an incredibly useful feature given the small nature of the graphics. Syndicate is a game I really wanted to like, on paper it sounds just like my kind of game. But despite several tries I just can’t get into it and always end up getting frustrated or bored. If you enjoyed the original home computer version of this game though you will absolutely love it.

T2K, as it’s often called, is widely considered to be the Jaguar’s marquee game. Ask most people what the machine’s best game is and you will hear this mentioned time after time. Although it later saw conversions to the PC, PlayStation and Saturn the original Jaguar version is still the best of the bunch. Being a game that was designed for the machine the other versions can’t quite match some of the effects and gameplay quirks. The game’s designer, the legendary Jeff Minter, only programmed the original Jag version too and cites it as one of his greatest achievements. A quick synopsis for those who don’t know – the original Tempest arcade game was a 3D vector based shoot ‘em where you eliminated a wide variety of enemies as they climbed up a selection of different webs. The Jag’s version adds a Plus mode (new graphics), two player duel mode and of course the utterly insane 2000 mode to the original game. The updated game adds shading to the 3D graphics, pixel shatter effects, power-ups, more levels, bonus stages and best of a thumping techno soundtrack. In both the graphics and sound departments this game excels at everything and at times this title becomes so much more than a game, it drags you into the screen and becomes an incredible experience. While I don’t think T2K is the Jag’s best game (I do think it’s a close second though!) there is no doubt that it’s pretty close to gaming perfection and a game worth owning the machine for.

Theme Park was a huge hit on the PC back in 1994 and it wasn’t long before various other home versions started to appear. Of those there is no doubt that this Jaguar version is the best, as well as being graphically superior to the 16-bit console version this is one game that the Jaguar keypad was made for. It makes the navigation of the various menus in this game incredibly easy. This Jag version also has a big bonus over the later PS1 and Saturn versions too, it lacks the pointless FMV but has more shops, rides and features! An alternative title for this game might be Sim Theme Park as it’s basically Sim City with rides! You have to build your park from scratch; setting the ticket prices, hiring staff, adding attractions, ordering stock, providing transport and so much more! It would take forever to list every feature of this fantastically addictive game. The biggest problem with this title is that you can easily lose an entire day playing it! Unfortunately you can only save the game when you sell your park to move onto a new country. Back in the day I sometimes used to pause this game and leave my Jaguar on overnight! If you love your strategy games then this title is unmissable and even if you don’t and are willing to put the time in I think you can still have a lot of fun with this game.

This cartridge contains the last known beta of a game that suffered a turbulent existence in development and was originally supposed to be a launch title for the machine. The original version as shown to the press in screenshots and present on the Jag’s box was eventually scrapped by Atari after they were less than impressed with what the programmers had done with it. Not even halfway complete it was restarted by a different team, before the license ran out and Atari decided to can it completely. What we actually have on the cart is a 5 level fully playable prototype. The first level is complete and the second level isn’t far off but after that you get 3 totally empty stages that just show the level design. The graphics are very 16-bit looking and there is no sound at all. There are 3 playable characters and if you die you simply change which one you control. Enemies are killed by the use of magic dust that can be replenished by grabbing a spray can. It’s all quite strange as when you kill them they turn into crystals you can pick up. It all plays like a very generic platformer and reminded me a lot of Bubsy in many ways. You can see why they canned it as you really can’t see this competing with the likes of Super Mario or Sonic. Only 100 of these were made and it came with a CD containing several other betas including the other version of Tiny Toons. It’s obvious for all to see why this game was abandoned as it’s boring, unoriginal and no better than a SNES game in any way.

This game was originally due to be released by Midway but was picked up, finished and finally released by Carl Forhan at Songbird several years after the Jag's demise. Programmed by Lynx (and not so much Jag) favourites Handmade Software this is a conversion of Midway's arcade game that was the sequel to Smash TV. One or two players can assume the roles of Captain Carnage or Major Mayhem in a frantic assault against the kamikaze forces of General Ahkboob. There is an unending and often overwhelming number of enemies pursuing the heroes at all times, but thankfully there are also many power-ups, bombs, and even missile strikes to assist players on their way to the final boss himself. Along the way you must try to rescue civilians and collect all the valuable items such as keys, dogtags, money and most importantly gun power-ups and bombs. The game uses different buttons for each of the eight firing directions which makes it nigh on impossible to play properly on the 3 button Jagpad and although better it is still a frustrating control method even on the Pro Pad. I really don't know why a simple A - Rotate left, B - Rotate right system couldn’t have been deployed much like the Lynx conversion of its predecessor Robotron 2084. Its a shame because this an arcade perfect conversion of an already brilliant game in every way with some great sound, frantic action and so much on screen with no slowdown at all.

Towers II is conversion of the Atari Falcon game of the same name, itself a sequel to a title that originally appeared on the Atari ST. Although the story follows on from the first game you don’t need to have played it to be able to get anywhere here. Towers II is pretty much an amalgamation of the classic Dungeon Master and Doom, a role-play game crossed with a first person shooter. You must make your way through 11 levels of the tower in question getting stronger as you go. At the start of the game you can choose between several characters, all with their own unique abilities, but the key to the game is learning and discovering the magic. It would take too long here to describe every intricate feature of this game but I was surprised by the amount of depth it has for a game of this type. When you first play it you will wonder what the hell is going on or what to do so this is one title where I do recommend you read the manual! Graphically Towers II is excellent with a nice smooth 3D engine and its good in the sound department too. While the Jaguar lacks a traditional RPG this game will certainly fill a gap in the library for owners seeking a complex battle-orientated adventure.

Fully endorsed by NFL legend Troy Aikmen himself this game features many of his own special custom plays as well as a special editor that allows to create your own plays too! Out of all the different grid iron games on the Atari machines this is by far the best and easily the most comprehensive one. This game has just about every feature imaginable and has some great pick up and play gameplay that even non-fans of the sport will find easy to master. Every NFL team is here with their official kits and colours and each has their own strengths and weaknesses. You can play pre-season games to practice or launch into a full season in a mission to reach the famous Superbowl. There are also different weather and pitch conditions to master adding a touch more realism to the whole experience. Ok the graphics are a little rough and speech is a little muffled but you won’t care too much because you will be too busy trying to sack that cocky quarterback! If you are a fan of the sport then Troy Aikmen is an essential game and even if you aren’t then you might still want to pick this game up as I think you will be pleasantly surprised by it!

Much like Kasumi Ninja, Ultra Vortek, is also an unashamed Mortal Kombat rip-off, but this one gets everything right that the earlier title got wrong. One of the worst things about KN was that it played really slowly, UV is the complete opposite as it plays incredibly fast! This game also has a more traditional control method and anyone who has played a MK game will be able to pick this straight up and get on with the killing. As well as the special moves, death moves and pit fatalities there is also a very special hidden finisher for each character (I don’t want to ruin it for you!). The range of fighters to choose from is brilliant and includes a spliff smoking rasta, electrifying robot, fire wielding temptress and even a T1000 style poly-morphing contender. With its superb visuals, banging music and fast action gameplay Ultra Vortek is without doubt the best fighting game on the console and an essential purchase for any Jag owner.