Joe Blade II Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
21Developed by Kevin Parker and published by Players Software in 1988.
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Having recently longplayed the original Joe Blade on the C64 and finding it to be an unfinished mess, I decided to revisit the sequel and to a higher quality recording.
Joe Blade II has returned to civvy street to find them overrun with punks, muggers and a plethora of dustbins that need emptying. Never one to shirk from civic duty, Joe dons his muscle vest and sets out to rescue sixteen frightened citizens from harm.
The game follows the same theme as the original: map the game, save the civilians and jump on muggers heads to earn points. Unlike the original, the game is beatable and a more polished affair overall.
Touching a citizen activates a mini-game requiring the player to organise numbers one through four in sequential order. The key to success is timing and pressing the fire button to swap the numbered tiles into the correct slots.
The locked door/key element returns in this game, although Joe starts out with a number of keys this time. More can be earned by collecting five dustbins that can be found bouncing in certain parts of the game map. Despite keys being consumed each time you pass through the same door, the increased number of keys this time around makes consumption much less of an issue.
Joe has a maximum of ten minutes within which to complete his mission; let the timer run out and it's game over. The timer can be reset by collecting an alarm clock, but don't collect them if you don't need to; the game's mazy nature means that you could end up doing a fair amount of wandering and back tracking, so leaving a clock handy is a good strategy.
The graphics are pretty decent and the sprites are nicely animated; they're definitely an improvement over the original game and beat out the Spectrum version easily.
Perhaps the biggest improvement in this sequel is the addition of some solid music from Mike Brown. It's not the greatest creation ever, but I really like the music for some reason, plus it keeps the game moving along nicely.
Zzap 64 magazine praised the original and berated this, which is clearly bonkers. Joe Blade II is a decent game, especially considering that it was released as a budget title.
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