Back in the days when the Amiga was a mere twinkle in Commodore's eye, Elite released a conversion of a fairly run of the mill arcade game called Bombjack. No one expected it do to particularly well, but we were all proved wrong when it positively soared up through the charts, earning Elite a fair few pounds in the process.

Well, the good news is that Elite have wheeled ol' Bombjack out of the deep freeze, set him on thaw and the result is Mighty Bombjack, a multi-screen platform affair that is as fresh as ever. Ok, it does nothing to promote originality, but who cares anyway!

The plot goes something like this. Once upon a time (I love an original intro) there was a goody king called Pamera, who was a just sort of fellow. He had managed to maintain peace within his kingdom for many years, so it was inevitable that someone would eventually try and muck it all up. That someone was Beelzebut, a wicked demon if ever there was one.

Beelzebut decided that it was about time old Pamera was put in his place, so he decided to plot against the king to bring about his downfall.

Upon hearing of his wicked plans, the brothers Mighty set forth to conquer old Beelzebut. Unfortunately, things didn't go too well. Indeed, only one brother survived the confrontation - Jack. Licking his wounds, he vowed to return to defeat Beelzebut. Eventually he does - but he'll need your guidance to do it.

You must guide Jack through 16 levels of platform action, collecting bombs and bombs and bonuses as you go, whilst avoiding the baddies that have been sent out to get you.

Ok, we've seen it all before, but Mighty Bombjack still manages to deliver the same addictive qualities that made the original such a hit.

Several years ago, a cutesy little arcade game called Bomb Jack was plugging away gaining quite a crowd of armirers. A few years later, Elite released a conversion of the game on the Amiga. Now the latest game in the series has appeared in the form of Mighty Bomb Jack.

Have cape will travel
You play Jack, the hero of the game, who is blessed with the mighty ability to leap great distances in a single bound. The idea of the game is to leap around a series of platform-filled levels trying to defuse bombs by simply crashing into them. The task is made more difficult by the presence of small scuttling robots which drop in from above occasionally.

After walking around the scenery for a short while, these robots turn into all manner of nasties, from evil birds to deadly floating skulls. One touch of these baddies causes instant death for our little hero.

Fortunately, there are a few things that Jack can use to battle the foe. The first is a floating coin which is either hidden in one of the treasure-filled chests or appears bouncing on the screen. If Jack collects this, robots momentarily turn into glowing orbs, which can be picked up for a bonus.

The second weapon is Jack Mighty Weapon. The power for this is increased by collecting tokens from the chest and when released, it allows Jack to storm through the enemies without a scratch!

Other hazards along the way appear in the shape of some tricky platform puzzles, with jack needing to find a way of getting past seemingly blocked corridors. But watch out! The robots are gaining!

Boom, Bang-A-Bang!
The original Bomb Jack coin-op was great for its time, and is still worth the odd ten pee every now and then. However, no one seems to really have done the game justice on home machines. The first conversion was a disappointing representation of the arcade game, and, unfortunately, Mighty Bomb Jack seems to have progressed very little since then.

There have been a few additions, such as the scrolling levels and the Mighty Weapon, but much of the game is the same as the original apart from a few aesthetic changes. To begin with, it's great fun leaping about and opening the treasure-chests for extra loot and the odd bits of humour (such as the torture room for greedy players that hog the loot) are quite amusing. However the fact that the game design is rather dated and over-used starts to creep in after a few games and the going begins to get a little dull.

Still, if you're an avid Bomb Jack fan, or just like the odd cute little platform game, then Mighty Bomb Jack may be worth a game or two. On the other hand, if you like your games to have a fair amount of frantic action, then Mighty Bomb Jack is unlikely to hold your interest for long.

Elite's cloaked hero returns for a third outing, this time adopting the impressive 'Mighty' title. As in the first two games (only Bomb Jack one of which actually made it to the Amiga), bomb defusing is the aim of the game.

Whereas in the first game this dangerous mission took place on several single screens, the action is now spread over a number of eight-way-scrolling levels. This allows the basic theme of the game to expand a little, and it now incorporates Mario-style bonuses in the form of treasure chests, whilst retaining the familiar baddies and bonuses for clever defusing.

Despite the small sprites, Mighty Bomb Jack features some very nice graphics. The scrolling is extremely smooth, and the backdrops are colourful and detailed without cluttering up the screen and rendering the pursuing sprites invisible.

What's more, despite offering limited variety, the actual game proves to be mildly addictive, and, whilst you won't be playing it solidly until the next hot release, Mighty Bomb Jack is a fun and untaxing platform romp that is worth a look. It's a game that you'll return to again and again. Bombs away!

A classic early Eighties Tecmo coin-op, Bombjack began life defusing bombs on a series of static screens, cape fluttering as he flew from bomb to bomb. Although the original C64 conversion (47%, issue 14) and Amiga conversion (39%, issue 43) were a disaster, success on other formats led Elite to develop their own C64 sequel (80%, issue 22). Three years later Tecmo themselves developed a sequel for the Nintendo, Mighty Bombjack, which was so hugely successful another Elite conversion was inevitable.