Review: Rodland (Amiga)
Cute fairies Tam and Rit set out on an adventure when their mother is kidnapped and imprisoned in a tower. Armed only with magic wands the siblings have to negotiate 40 levels or rooms as they ascend the tower, coming up against an assortment of enemies and every 10 levels having to face off against a tricky boss.
Rodland plays a lot like Bubble Bobble with each level restricted to one screen. While your magic wand can disable enemies if you fire at them, its main strength comes in holding your enemies and then swinging them over your head left and right, bashing them against the ground until they are dead. It’s surprisingly brutal for such a cute and colourful game. Enemies leave numerous power ups including a flame thrower and magic bolts that move rapidly around the screen and usually take out your enemies. To traverse the levels you have to make use of ladders to reach the higher platforms. Tam and Rit have one ladder of their own which they can use throughout the level to either reach platforms or to ascend to higher points to hit a boss. You can only move onto the next level when you have taken out all the enemies on the screen. Your enemies include sharks, worms, potatoes, a vast array who will try and stop you any way they can. Kill them quick though because some have the ability to spawn further chums to hinder your progress.
Rodland is a very brief game but this was the standard for the Amiga back in the early nineties. While this is well executed and has a great soundtrack it does feel a little limited compared to Bubble Bobble. That said, it is still a fun experience while it lasts and a fond reminder of how games that were simple were not necessarily bad. You’d probably play through it a few times to be honest so for that reason it deserves credit.
Rodland still looks good today and although it’s a short experience there is still some fun to be found here. This doesn’t have the durability of Bubble Bobble in my opinion but it retains a lot of charm and the method of dispatching enemies is very amusing no matter how many times you do it.
Verdict: 3/5
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