RoboCop 2

RoboCop 2 by British studio Ocean Software was released on the Amiga in November 1990, actually before the film of the same name opened in cinemas in some countries, making it the very first game adaptation of this sequel — the arcade version by Japan's Data East didn't arrive until a few months later, in spring 1991. At the time, Ocean was among the most experienced studios when it came to bringing film licenses to home computers, and RoboCop 2 is a typical example of their work: a platformer with shooter elements, in which the player, as the titular cyborg cop, fights through gang- and drug-lord-infested streets of Detroit straight out of the film.

The game builds on the mechanics Ocean had already established in the first RoboCop back in 1988 — a combination of walking, aiming weapons in several directions, and short action cutscenes that break up the pace of the platforming sections. On the Amiga, this showed above all in the graphics: colorful, detailed backdrops matched the film source far more faithfully than the later eight-bit and console conversions on weaker hardware, and the music and sound made full use of the Amiga's sound chip, including the digitized voice samples typical of Ocean's games from that era. This version is the one the developers designed as the reference build — other platforms were based on it and had to adapt and simplify the content due to weaker hardware, whether in the number of colors on screen, scrolling speed, or the length of individual levels.

As a film license from the turn of the '80s and '90s, RoboCop 2 doesn't offer a complicated story, but it works as a fast, aggressive ride matching the series' popularity at the time and the way Ocean Software handled film licenses like this on the Amiga.

Why play it: RoboCop 2 on the Amiga is for fans of '80s and '90s B-movie action — the most complete and graphically richest version of the film license, before Ocean had to simplify it for weaker eight-bit machines and consoles.