Impossamole, PC Engine

The 1991 PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 version of Gremlin Graphics‘ classic Monty Mole game is a rare treat: it’s a British-developed PC Engine game, and an alright one at that. And, believe it or not, but the PC Engine version of the game is the one that’s currently available on Steam and GOG.com.

The first thing you might notice is that the opening title theme in Impossamole is an excellent tribute to Rob Hubbard‘s classic Monty On the Run theme. The composer (Barry Leitch) has remixed Hubbard‘s music but kept recognisable sections of it, and it’s a delightful thing to hear!

The game’s story is the same as in the ZX Spectrum original: aliens have kidnapped Monty Mole and tell him that he’s “The Chosen One“. They give him super alien powers and instruct him to defeat “The Five Guardians“, each of which he’ll find at the end of five rounds of tortuous platforming (the rounds being: The Orient, Iceland, Amazon Jungle, Bermuda Triangle and finally the Alien Planet). Each round is divided into a series of sub-stages, with a boss battle at the end. The final Alien Planet round only becomes accessible when the other four have been completed. The PC Engine version of Impossamole uses passwords to access the five rounds, which I’ve posted below.

Monty‘s two main abilities are jumping and kicking. The feel of controlling Monty is excellent with well-judged movement and inertia. Kicking enables Monty to kill some (but not all) enemies, and occasionally he can also collect weapons and use them, but they are limited use.

Monty can kick enemies to turn them into blocks, which he can kick again to knock them into the air, catch them, then throw them at other enemies to knock them out. The problem with this is that, after a set amount of time, the boxed enemies wake up and can hurt you again – even when you’re carrying them. Which is really annoying.

Something else that is really annoying about this game are the falling rocks. On every level you’ll have them drop in front of you with little notice, but you can kick them away to avoid damage (if you’re quick), which is handy to know.

Impossamole would have been a much better game without the falling rocks, or maybe having varying difficulty levels, because as it stands it’s a frustratingly difficult experience. The way ladders work in the game is also annoying (if you walk along the top of one you fall down through it), and in general there are too many issues with this game to call it a success. Which is a pity because the game feels great to play, and looks and sounds good, but is just a bit too unforgiving to be properly enjoyable.

More: Impossamole on Wikipedia
Steam: Impossamole on Steam
GOG: Impossamole on GOG.com