3/30/2023 0 Comments Ultra balloon amiga room![]() ![]() Whilst the music is horribly grating, the game does look nice. Fans of SEGA’s classic will find this a serviceable if unexciting reimagining. The purpose of collecting tickets is to open up additional portions of the ‘Water Slide’, which looks and plays uncannily like the bonus stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Partly, this is d ue to a limited range of directional animations, with cornering proving stiff and difficult to judge. The trouble is, whilst delivering a surprising degree of challenge, some really poor handling lets down this activity. ‘Jet Boat’ is easily the most impressive from a presentation point of view, with big jet skis and impressive effects bringing to mind the Game Boy’s Wave Race. ![]() However, like most of the other activities, there’s not much beyond the initial premise and no real endgame: just bash opponents to amass tickets, until the time runs out. This might have worked better with a ranking/elimination system to underpin it. ‘Bumper Boats’ is fun: realistically the nearest we’ll ever see the Polly Pocket brand come to vehicular combat, with a couple of power-ups that can be used to smash your pals’ boats. There’s plenty going on here too, resulting in some ultra short-term enjoyment, though you’ll soon tire of it.Ī couple of the activities are a little more interesting, albeit neither is fully realised. ![]() ![]() ‘Tube Trouble’ sees Polly running around collecting balloons and jumping between three tiers of platforms, occasionally dodging wave s by grabbing onto overhead netting. This one grew on me, offering a sterner test of reflexes. However, the colour on her super-soaker must correspond with the colour of the dinghy worn by the kid in question. ‘ Water Blaster’ involves a slightly finicky grid-based gallery shooting setup, as Polly must blast various kids popping up from under the water, with jets of water. I can’t help thinking such an assault course w ouldn ’t have been endorsed by the theme park, save for if it was being run by a Bond villain. I nstead of avoiding cars, Polly has to hop, log-to-log, croc-to-croc, keeping out of the water/ jaws of local wildlife. ‘River Crossing’ is essentially Frogger and if you’ve played that, you’ve played this. This is perhaps the most uneventful of the games, its layouts feeling sparse and unengaging. So what about the activities in question? There’s ‘River Rapids’, a rather half-hearted take on Toobin that sees Polly gliding along in a dinghy, collecting balloons, avoiding occasional rocks and taking jumps. There’s high scores to be a t and, uh, different coloured swimsuits to be unlocked. T he majority of these are modelled around simple, accessible arcade titles of yesteryear. The park is a little less bombastic than its name suggests, consist ing of a modest array of mini-games. Super Splash Island centres around a trip to a water park, as Polly rather fortuitously wins a radio phone-in competition, granting tickets for herself and five of her most-highly-regarded friends. Video gaming is all about entertainment and escapism, after all. Perhaps dishearteningly, the Polly Pocket we see in Super Splash Island very much mirrors the glossy, apparently contextless lifestyle of a socialite, an image engineered to maximum exaggeration by the Paris Hilton’s and Nicole Ritchie’s of the celebrity world throughout the noughties. The result was a super-sizing of the dolls, a 2018 TV series and, prior to that, the enlisting of Pinball Dreams developer Digital Illusions to create a video game for the Game Boy Advance. The distinctive lockets took a backseat, as Mattel sought to thrust Polly and her pals into the mainstream. were then subjected to that most dreaded of inevitabilities, a ‘cultural reboot ’. So what became of it? In its original guise, Polly Pocket ran for just under a decade before Bluebird went under in 1998 and the rights were snapped up by Mattel. A bedroom, dining area, garden or beach ornately realised, with tiny figurines and furnishings that could be played with, independently of the base. Within, lay detail ed re creations of familiar domestic or holidaying locations. Diminutive enough to fit in the hand and shaped like hearts, stars and shells, these scenic microcosms were a source of fascination. Taking the traditional dolls ‘n’ dollhouse idea and miniaturising them, each one encapsulated a small scene within a container designed as a large locket. Created by British toymaker Bluebird, the Polly Pocket range was particularly popular among girls growing up during the nineties. ![]()
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