This great little platform game is actually a conversion of a Nintendo Entertainment System game, created by Tecmo in 1986. Elite Systems developed and published the Atari ST version of Mighty Bomb Jack in 1990. It is of course a sequel to the classic arcade game Bomb Jack.

What’s so good about Mighty Bomb Jack is the gameplay, which is very good indeed, when you get down to the nitty gritty of it. The way Jack jumps – the timings – and the way he floats (and stops floating) are all part of his silky superhero skills. Once you’ve mastered how to use him, the game becomes a great test of platforming skills.

A difference in this Bomb Jack sequel is in the use of scrolling levels. The idea is still to collect the bombs (in sequence will earn you more points) to beat the levels, but in this follow-up you also have to move left and right to make your way through a horizontally (and sometimes vertically) scrolling series of platforms inside a big room. Every now and then the levels are also punctuated by single screen challenges (which tend to be the toughest). It works well and makes the game a bit more interesting than the original in my humble opinion.

Graphically, this Atari ST version is very nice. Colourful and well defined. It didn’t review too well at the time of release, although personally I think Mighty Bomb Jack is a decent Atari ST game and highly recommend it.

More: Mighty Bomb Jack on Wikipedia