Impossamole on the ZX Spectrum is a multi-load expanded re-imagining of Gremlin Graphics‘ classic first Monty Mole game: Wanted: Monty Mole. It was developed by Core Design and first published by Gremlin in 1990, which was very late in the Spectrum‘s lifespan.

The advantages of releasing a game late into a computer’s lifespan are numerous. For starters: you can load a game quickly and easily from disk (if you have a Spectrum with a floppy disk drive), which saves you the hassle of having to deal with the tape version’s convoluted and frustrating multi-load (having tried the tape multi-load myself, believe me: you don’t wanna go there). Another advantage of late-era gaming is that programmers and artists usually have a good grasp of the system by that point and can therefore use more tricks to make their games look good. And I have to say: Impossamole, for a Spectrum game, looks pretty damn special.

You return as Monty Mole, into an ‘impossamole‘ situation [cough]… Monty has been abducted by aliens who tell him he is “the chosen one” and must vanquish the “Five Guardians” for them. To aid Monty in his quest the aliens promise him limited use of their “special powers”.

Impossamole features four levels (Iceland, Klondyke, Amazon, and Orient), which you can play in any order, with a fifth and final level only becoming available when the other four have been completed (very much like in Core Design‘s Rick Dangerous games). At the end of each level Monty must fight a boss battle against one of the Five Guardians, and defeat each one in turn.

Monty can jump and climb in much the same way as he could in previous games, and Impossamole uses a kind of push scrolling to move the scene along (it’s not quite scrolling and it’s not quite flick-screen – it’s somewhere in the middle). To defend himself Monty can kick, and can pick up occasional weapons that allow him to shoot. These guns are especially useful during boss battles. Monty also gets use of an alien “super weapon” once per level (by pressing Space), which will rid the screen of all enemies.

Jumping I found to be frustrating in Impossamole. Monty seems to not have much momentum when jumping forwards, which often leads to mis-timed jumps or lost health. It takes a while to get used to Monty‘s jump distance and I still think that the game’s programmers didn’t quite get the jumping right. I think many playing Impossamole will often yearn for a better, more strident jump… But it is what it is, which is: a potentially brilliant game let down by an arguably problematic jump. The game is also pretty slow, which can also be frustrating at times.

To partially compensate for the dodgy jumping algorithm Monty has also been gifted another useful ability, and that is the ability to glide downwards at an angle, like a Sugar Glider. This is useful because it allows Monty to reach places that would otherwise be out of reach, and it also negates any fall damage.

Impossamole looks amazing, though. The graphics are beautifully-drawn and superbly well-coloured (with minimal colour clash), and the Monty sprite is full of character and well-animated. Enemy sprites range from “a little generic” to “actually quite brilliant” (the chameleons and hummingbirds in particular I thought were extremely well drawn in just a few pixels), but all of the backgrounds are masterfully designed (the Amazon level in particular I thought looked very atmospheric – a true work of pixel artistry). The game also has some decent AY music if you’re playing on a later Spectrum, but in-game you just get occasional sound effects, which is fine by me.

Overall, Impossamole is a very good game, but it just falls short of being a classic in my opinion. If it had a better jump mechanic (so that Monty could jump further, and so that his forward jump momentum didn’t feel slower than his walking speed), then I’m sure that Impossamole would have been considerably better. As it stands: the game is frustrating because of Monty‘s unimpressive jumping skills. Which is not something I ever thought I’d hear myself say. But it is one of the best-looking games in the entire Spectrum library.

PS. If anyone knows who made the graphics for the Spectrum version of Impossamole – or know of any of the people on the team who worked on it – please drop me a message (or leave a comment) to let me know. Thanks! Credit where credit’s due. I can’t find a definitive list of the devs who created this port, and would like to credit them in the same way I like to credit all the developers for all the games I write about. 🙂

More: Impossamole on Wikipedia
More: Impossamole on World of Spectrum