Whether or not Capital Punishment is one of the best beat-'em-ups for the Amiga, it is an interesting game. It combines a sense for the spirit of the times with a realistic appreciation of the capabilities of its chosen platform. In the years 1995 and 1996, maybe a dozen 3D shooters had been released for the Amiga: Alien Breed 3D, Fears, Gloom, Nemac IV, Breathless, and many others. In the end they all proved just one thing: that a standard Amiga was not up to the job. And the high-end Amigas that were—were rare. Capital Punishment instead concentrates on things the Amiga is built to do: moving well-drawn sprites over gorgeous backdrops. And gorgeous they are. I guess my favorite is the Midway with its spectacular lighting effects.
But, as I said, it still catered to the spirit of the time. During the 90s, horror settings, blood, gore and guts had become increasingly popular and permeated all genres. There was Dungeon Keeper, where you could torture your prisoners or starve them to death till they rose as undead skeletons. Populous had been a lot more wholesome. Diablo took you down to hell itself, where impaled bodies are common decorations. Even Daggerfall paid its tribute with large fangs on unlikely creatures and spooky sounds you could well do without.
Capital Punishment had all this. Scary alien adversaries, not all that common in fighter games; spooky sewers and dungeons with skeletons chained to the wall; bloodstains and spiketraps on which you could get impaled, or impale your enemies. It wrapped up the action in a sort of story, which wasn't exactly new (Karateka is an early example, Double Dragon a famous one) but felt more like the popular shooter games.
Whether or not Capital Punishment is a contender for the title of best fighter game on the Amiga, I cannot judge. In general, gamers seem to prefer Fightin' Spirit, which is less spectacular, but offers the better gameplay.
DEMONA:
- Weakest and most fragile. But, this is more than compensated by her long whip. It has three functions:
Demona has a fast low kick as well as heel kick.
- Short whip to keep enemies at a safe distance. Not so poweful.
- Long whip will hit when enemy is close.
- When enemy is further away, this same move will get the whip around his neck and bring him over for a fast uppercut or similar. Be careful, though, enemy that close can be dangerous if you don't combine moves well.
CORBEN WEDGE:
- Great all-around fighter. Once you perfect his rolling (three times fire and down) and triple combos (three times and up) he becomes lethal. Always use the rolling combo when the enemy is on the ground. His backflip (up and backwards) can be used to avoid any dangerous situations, but it can also serve as a hit if the enemy is very close.
SARMON:
- Fastest fighter with a great jump kick and flying high kick. Use a deadly combination of flying high kick, then direct in the nose.
WAKANTANKA:
- Slowest, but most powerful. Deadly triple head cruncher combo. Surprisingly fast running buffalo combo. Wakantanka can be used for defensive fighting by using jump + fire to defend teritory, or mid hit. Dangerous is also the elbow mid hit combination.
A fifth character, the Ninja, can be unlocked with a cheat. Demona not only sports a whip, but also a rather unconventional fighting dress. She can also bend over and grab her ankles; I don't know whether that's a special move or some sort of idle animation. A nice idea was the Rescue mode: You would encounter the other characters on your way, and after you beat them, they became available to you, so you could choose which character you wanted to beat the next level with.
Capital Punishment was created by a group of Belgrade programmers one Aleksandar Petrovic, an expat, had assembled for his Canadian-based company PXL computers. The team ran under the name clickBOOM. They later ported Myst to the Amiga. After that, they parted way with Petrovic, not necessary in harmony. The name clickBOOM remained with him. This team was:
In spite of some controversies clickBOOM remained a good name in
the Amiga scene. They ported
Myst in 1997
(this was still the original team),
Quake in 1998, and
Nightlong in 1999.
They developed two more Amiga games,
Napalm: The Crimson Crisis
(an attempt at a Command & Conquer clone,
1998), and T-zer0 (shooter, 1999),
the former done by Polish, the latter by Italian programmers.
Now, they mostly create multimedia CDs for product presentations,
and have digitally remastered
some classic games for Cinemaware:
Defender of the Crown, Wings,
and Lords of the Rising Sun.
