I got some really good memories about this game. I was really determined to finish this game and tried I did. After a lot of tries I finally managed to finish the game. It can be really difficult at times especially in the second part. But the good thing is that you can hide somewhere just to think about your next move. I like games in which you can just stop somewhere thinking about what to do next without getting killed.
Just like Back to the Future II this game was high on my to do list of games to review. The game is divided in 3 scenes with scene 1 having 3 sub parts and scene 2 has 2 sub parts. The game actually follows the story of the movie which (you can read later on) is really helpful. Let’s get 007 started with his mission.
Licence to Kill – Scene 1 part 1
In scene 1 part 1 you have to control the helicopter and make sure you do not get hit and fire back at the buildings. At the end you have to drop off James so scene 1 part 2 can start. This is a fairly easy part building up your confidence for the next part.
Licence to Kill – Scene 1 part 2
For me scene 1 part 2 is the most difficult part of the game. But since you can hide behind objects you have time to think. What I don’t like about this part is the way you use the gun. Aiming it to the correct position will almost every time fire a bullet. If you are aiming it (fire button and the controls) and at the same time you let go of the fire button and move into a direction it will not fire a bullet. But the risk is that you are in the firing line and will get hit. It’s not ruining this part for me but it surely is annoying. This part of the game is my favourite part of the game. I guess the reason for this is that my favourite type of games are games that have this kind of layout and play. Like for example Ikari Warriors, Dogs of War and Rambo 3 to name a few. I always got the feeling the C64 had more of these kind games compared to the Amiga.
You have to get your self through all the baddies and make it to the helicopter in which Felix is waiting for you. You can shoot at the oil barrels which will blow up after 4 hits. This will allow you to take out your components. Of course shooting them directly will only cost you 1 bullet. Along the way you can pick up new magazines to make sure you won’t run out of bullets. If you move forward to shooting thugs they will run away making it easier for you to shoot them. If you play this part for a while you know their routines and it will be easier to get through to the end. Once we reach the runway we have a few thugs to take care of before we can enter the helicopter and go to part 3.
Licence to Kill – Scene 1 part 3
For me it was unclear what I have to do in this part of the game. It is clear that you somehow need to “catch” the plane. That’s why I love games that follow the movie since if you watch the movie you know the plane is being hooked at the tail. And indeed once you hover over the tail of the plane you can see the indicator and when you press the fire button you will hook the tail of the plane. On to scene 2 part 1 007.
License to Kill – Scene 2 part 1
Scene two has two parts but it is a continues play. For this scene I also consulted the movie which just gets you extra points with me. Once you kill one of the divers (while avoiding getting hit by them or by the boats) you get his harpoon which you shoot at the plane so you can tail behind it. And that is exactly what I did and at first I thought I had to do that for a while till I reach a certain point. But time passed and nothing happened till I consulted the movie and saw that 007 actually climbed in the plane.
Licence to Kill – Scene 2 part 2
Back playing the game I noticed I was able to move in on the plane till I could enter it and end this part of the game. Of course I still had to move around the obstacles while trying to enter the plane. Once we accomplish this we are going to the very last scene of the game.
Licence to Kill – Scene 3 dropping 007 on to the truck
First we need to drop 007 on to the truck. This part is not that difficult. Scene 1 part (hooking the plane) is more difficult.
Licence to Kill – Scene 3 destroying other trucks
Once you take control of the truck you have to destroy several other trucks till you reach the last one controlled by Sanchez. Once you destroy that truck you have finished the game. You have to be careful since there are Jeeps driving around firing Stinger missiles at you. It’s not easy to accomplish this last part of the game. I remember that great feeling when I finished the game.
Below you can see some ratings from various magazines from Hall of Light.
Licence to Kill reviews – Hall of Light
License to Kill will always be on my top list of Amiga games. This is really my kind of game and of course it does carry a lot of sentimental baggage. Between the 3 James Bond games on the Amiga; Licence to Kill, Live and let Die and The spy who love me I give the award for best Amiga Bond game to License to Kill. To me it outshines the other two by miles. For me the sentimental value certainly adds some points for the score but even leaving that out it still would score rather good on my list.
The problem with reviews is that you get a lot of different opinions. What is great for one is rather disappointing for someone else. I have seen people loving and hating this game. This game certainly will bring you some Friday or Saturday evening fun. I have kept playing it over the years and I will still do this in the years to come. I would give it a rating of 93% if I add the sentimental feeling I have about it to it. But I will also rate it without.
The Bucket Diary gives it a rating of 87%.
Because my 1084 monitor broke down I had to come up with a alternative solution to be able to keep using my A1200. The choice was to use a television set I had left over. To test it I played Commando on it. This is really a game that is unplayable unless you use a trainer version. But it did gave me a C64 feeling and with the trainer I kept trying for some time
Commando
I could not help thinking about the time I played similar games like this on a C64. I really like the top down view of these kind of war games. Here’s a list of some of my favourite top down view war games.
Ikari Warriors – Title Screen
Ikari Warriors – Starting point
Everyone has played Ikari Warriors at some stage. How about the two player mode?
Rambo III
Another favourite of mine, Rambo III. I wish they had created a game from part 1 and 2 as well.
Dogs of War – Title Screen
Dogs Of war
Another classic, Dogs of War. “TIMBO F5”, anyone?
Leatherneck – Title Screen
Leatherneck – Enemy contact
Leatherneck also has a two player mode giving you many hours of fun.
If you know some more of these kind of games let me know. There are more I can list here but that would make it a “never ending” list. We can debate for a long time if most of these games are any good at all. But for sure these are my favourite type of games.
I managed to finish and publish part 2 of “ReAction – Opening a Window”. I will start work on part 3 shortly. The weather has been extremely warm lately so I did not use my Amiga’s a lot.
I am a retro game fan and having to admit that today’s games are visually stunning they don’t get me as ecstatic as the old games. Of course we wanted better graphics back in the day but also the playability of those current games. It seems we lost the playability. At least in my book. Take for example games like Ikari Warriors, Dogs Of War and Rambo III. Games to keep you busy and give you a lot of fun on a rainy day. Do you notice the character in the screenshot of Ikari Warriors looks more like John Rambo than the character in the screenshot of Rambo III? Both Ikari Warriors and Dogs Of War are also great when playing with two people.
Ikari Warriors
Dogs Of war
Rambo III
(Pictures are taken from Hall Of Light)
Enough about existing games. How about games you would have loved seeing on the Amiga but never existed? For me this means films turned into a game for the Amiga. If you ask me at this very moment which films I would love to see turn in to a game for the Amiga I would have to say..
First Blood
First Blood
War Games
War Games
Remember I talked in the beginning about me being a great fan of retro games and not the modern type games? Well I talked about that for a reason of course. If I would turn those two films into a game I would do it “retro game” style. No modern style version of it but the way it would have been if it was made in the Eighties or early Nineties. How’s that for a concept? I would love to start on this myself. My problem with game design is that I am no graphics artist and even my drawing of a stick men looks terrible. So if I would try this I would have to team up with others to get this project started. Maybe there are others out there with the same ideas on this and it actually might happen in the future? Who knows.
Thursday afternoon around 3:00pm and enjoying a nice cold beer outside when the temperature is just a bit above the 35 degrees. This is a time when fast drinking is advised since this heat will make that cold beer a warm beer in just a matter of minutes so to speak. Good thing there is a bit of a breeze otherwise this heat is just killing you. Now would be a good time to compile my top 10 list of old school Amiga games. If you read my blog before you know I could never make a permanent top 10 list. It is more of a feeling at that moment when making such a list. Chances are I would make a few changes within a week anyway. Mostly I would be adding “forgotten” games or move a game somewhat up or down the list. If I would have to make the list right now it would look like the one below.
1 – Kick Off 2
2 – Shadow of the Beast
3 – License to Kill
4 – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Adventure Game)
5 – Run the Gauntlet
6 – Hybris
7 – Thundercats
8 – Ikari Warriors
9 – Dogs of War
10 – Pirates
Remember this is just a snapshot of my findings at this very moment. A lot of games I surely must have forgotten which will come to me at a later stage which will influence my top 10 list. Like I said before my top 10 list (or more) is never permanent.
Kick Off 2 is number one because I played this game the most. No game got played more on my Amiga’s. I did play the first version for a bit but when version 2 came out I jumped on it and never looked back. I never really played modern soccer games but I can tell you that none of them could give me the feeling that Kick Off 2 did. Anyone remember when the game just got stuck and nothing happened anymore no matter how long you waited? If you did a substitute the game would come back to life again.
Shadow of the Beast is just one of those games you showed everyone to impress them with the capabilities of the Amiga. The music, the graphics…. The first one is still the best one of all three versions. Remember you had to press and hold the left mouse button and joystick button (cracked version) after the intro for the trainer?
From all 3 versions of James Bond games released on the Amiga License to Kill was by far the best one. What I liked about it is that it followed the movie story a bit. That came in handy when I did not know what you do after I shot the harpoon into the back of the airplane. I was stuck behind it thinking I had to do this for a while to get to the next level. After watching the movie I saw he got into the airplane. After figuring out how to get closer to the airplane I indeed got into the airplane and to the next level. This is a game I really wanted to finish and did. Not many games gave me that urge of wanting to finish it as badly as this one.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Adventure Game) is one of those games you give up on a thousand times and also try it again a thousand times. A friend of mine had the PC version and together we tried to figure out the clues and get further in the game. After giving up once again you watched the movie (I remember always around Christmas) and you gave it another try. The best adventure game on the Amiga, period.
Run the Gauntlet was a game I played a lot mainly because I was also watching the event on television. Soon they also had a Dutch version of Run the Gauntlet which made we want to play the game even more. I have some really fond memories of playing this game.
Hybris was a stunning looking game for a 1987’s game. This one I also played a lot and was really addictive. It is hard to explain having Thundercats up there but for some reason this game grew on me. I played it not so long ago to see if I was not mistaken and I started to even love it more. When I played it first it did not do much to me but this is one of those games you just start to love more and more over time. I am also really fond of Ikari Warriors. My fondest memories are the two player mode. Dogs of War is also one of those games that is in everyone’s top 10 list. To end the list I have Pirates. A game I seem to play a lot during the winter season. I have some really fond memories of snow outside and having hot coco in front of the Amiga playing Pirates.
I am really a sentimental geezer. 🙂
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