The 1988 Amiga conversion of Taito‘s classic gun-based arcade game, Operation Wolf, was developed by Ocean Software and was reasonably well recieved at the time of release, but the fact is: it hasn’t stood the test of time that well, and it isn’t anywhere near as good as the original reviews made out. It’s just merely okay.
Category Archives: Ocean Software
Ocean Software was a Manchester-based video game development and publishing house that was founded in 1983 by David Ward and Jon Woods. It was known for its ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 games (although it did publish for a wide variety of formats), and its movie licenses. Ocean was wound-up in 1998, and later sold to Infogrames. Bandai Namco acquired the rights to the Ocean label in 2009.
Worms, Sega Saturn
The Sega Saturn version of Team 17‘s classic Worms is pretty much identical to the PlayStation version, which is great because that makes it a special game. It makes it a brilliant party game for up to four players.
Parasol Stars, Game Boy
Taito‘s brilliant Parasol Stars (aka The Story of Bubble Bobble III) made an appearance on the original black and white Game Boy in 1992, courtesy of Ocean Software. In spite of the lack of colour the game is a faithful conversion of the original game (which first came out on the PC Engine), with cute graphics and wonderful, jolly tunes, and it is sure to bring joy to the heart of anyone who plays it.
Rainbow Islands, Amstrad CPC
Graftgold‘s conversion of Rainbow Islands on the Amstrad is a decent port of the brilliant Taito arcade game. It was published by Ocean Software in 1990.
Donkey Kong, Amstrad CPC
Ocean Software‘s 8-bit conversion of the classic 1981 Nintendo arcade game, Donkey Kong, is considered to be close to perfect on the Amstrad CPC. All the screens; all the sound effects, and all the challenging gameplay elements are present and correct in this port.
Gryzor, Amstrad CPC
In 1987 Konami released the hugely successful run-and-gun shoot ’em up Contra in arcades, and Gryzor is the localised European conversion of that game, published by Ocean Software in 1988.
Chase HQ, Amstrad CPC
Ocean Software‘s 1989 conversion of Taito‘s classic arcade race game, Chase HQ, is a bit of a doozy on the Amstrad. While it doesn’t have quite the impact that its amazing arcade parent does, it does do a very good job of trying to recreate its high-octane, criminal-chasing thrills.
Bruce Lee, ZX Spectrum
Bruce Lee on the ZX Spectrum was developed by Ocean Software and is an excellent conversion of the Atari 8-bit original. It’s playable, solid, and remains great fun to play to this day. It even retains the simultaneous two-player mode from the original.
Super Turrican 2, Super Nintendo
This sequel to Super Turrican was again created by German developer Factor 5 and was published by Ocean Software for the Super Nintendo in 1995.
Hunchback: The Adventure, ZX Spectrum
Rather than produce another platform game, Ocean Software chose to make a graphical adventure for their third Hunchback game. Which was an unusual choice.
Hunchback: The Adventure again features Quasimodo trying to rescue Esmeralda, this time from the evil Cardinal of Notre Dame. It’s a three-part game, requiring the same number of loads. In part one Quasimodo must escape from Notre Dame itself, and from the Cardinal’s many guards who are trying to stop him. In part two he must make his way under the city of Paris until he reaches the Cardinal’s mansion. And finally, in part three, he must challenge the Cardinal and escape with Esmeralda in tow.
The King of Grabs 