Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier

aka: Jet Set Willy: The Final Frontier
Moby ID: 19590
MSX Specs

Description official description

This platform game is the sequel of Jet Set Willy and basically just an extension of the previous game, adding 40 rooms to the existing 64 rooms of its predecessor. The gameplay otherwise remains almost identical, apart from a few minor changes. Upon death, Willy respawns in a specific safe spot rather than at a room's entrance, helping prevent some "unavoidable infinite death" scenarios. Jump physics were also modified a bit from the original game.

Much like Jet Set Willy the game features copy protection: when the game is loaded, the user is given a reference to the included sheet and has to enter the four colours shown there.

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (Amstrad CPC version)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 69% (based on 13 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 19 ratings with 1 reviews)

A fun but hard game

The Good
Jet Set Willy is a multi screen platform game in which you are tasked with grabbing all the shiny objects. You start with 9 lifes and you will need them believe me! Theres a pleasant tune that can be turned on of off and a few basic sound effects. The graphics look simple and are only 4 colours but strangely seem to work.

The mansion your stuck inside is vast with over 100 rooms to explore. These are full of platforms, conveyor belts, spikes, ropes and odd looking nasties. Beware though as a few rooms are misleading and leave you trapped. This all adds to the enjoyment as you learn from your mistakes and also stumble upon secret areas like the Desert Island or even the trip into space!

The Bad
Pixel perfect timing is often required which can lead to death if you make a mistake. Sometimes when you die your put right back where you died - another Willy lost leading quickly to game over. Some rooms are very unforgiving and can take ages to master.

The Bottom Line
A famous game that charmed you into having one more go.

Amstrad CPC · by makky (4) · 2017

Discussion

Subject By Date
Amstrad CPC version S Olafsson (59375) Jul 31, 2017

Trivia

Development

Jet Set Willy for Spectrum had a much smaller mansion of 60 rooms, but when ported to Amstrad CPC the designers (Derrick P. Rowson and Steve Wetherill) decided to expand the game, more than doubling the number of rooms to 132. Later, the expanded version was ported back to Spectrum, and from then on was considered Jet Set Willy II.

References

In this game there are numerous rooms that are parodies of other games and people:

  • "Macarroni Ted" was named after Technician Ted who worked for Marconi
  • "Alienate" was named after all the alien films and is meant to sound like Alien 8
  • "Captain Slog"/"Beam me down Spotty" are just corruptions on the appropriate sayings
  • "Dumb Waiter" is a tribute to Eugene Evans and his program wacky waiters
  • "Flower Power Source" is a tribute to the flower Power movement of the 60's
  • "Galaxic Invasion" is a tribute to the Galaxians and space invaders of the early 80's
  • "Holt Road" was a residence owned by the software house and was used to house some programmers
  • "Loony Jet Set" is a tribute to lunar jet pac a game that was release in the early 80's
  • "Megaron" is an ancient Greek word for hall
  • "Money Bags" is a tribute to Mathew Smith and all the monies he was going to make
  • "NCC 1501" is a tribute to Star Trek and the ship NCC 1701" Enterprise"
  • "Someone else" is named after Cameron Else who phoned up the programmer and announced that one note was wrong in the title tune.
  • "Star drive early brick version" derives its name from a skit at old technology being not up the job
  • "The trouble with Tibbles is.." is a tribute to one episode of Star Trek that featured tribbles.
  • The well appears 3 times in order to say "Well, well, well" as a remark to indicate your pending demise.
  • In the central map area an homage to the game Hunchback is effected with the parapet-running, rope-swinging, pit-jumping rooms (from left to right) On the Roof, Up On the Battlements, We must peform a Quirkafleeg (its peculiar name a reference to a Fat Freddy's Cat comic strip), I'm sure I've seen this before, and Rescue Esmerelda, with Belfry atop it.

Awards

  • Retro Gamer
    • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #79 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Derrick P Rowson and Technocrat

Analytics

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 19590
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by koffiepad.

iPhone, iPad added by Sciere. Electron, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16, Plus/4, BBC Micro added by Kabushi. Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith. Amiga added by Macs Black.

Additional contributors: Pseudo_Intellectual, Patrick Bregger, S Olafsson.

Game added October 19, 2005. Last modified February 21, 2024.