Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:Opinions on the sound package, anyone?
I noticed in the TWIP Deep Dive for Bond 60th that there is no credit for Sound Design. Did Mark Penacho really do all the coding *and* the sound package? I can't really hear the sounds very well on location, but I'm fairly sure I'm not hearing much in the way of creativity or punch. I realize there is a shameful lack of assets in this game, but what did Penacho (or the uncredited sound artist) actually have to work with other than a few bursts of the Bond theme? Is the sound used well/memorably in any particular mode?
I feel like the sound is excellent. When you start a game you get several sound choices: Modern, 80s, and several versions of chimes. All of them are different and excellent in my opinion. The music choices fit the era chosen. In modern hitting the loops makes thais Austin-Martin engine sound. In the 80s the spinners make a cool retro sound like you might hear to Alien Star or something.
There are callouts. One of the best in my opinion is that when you collect a Bond that specific actor with say something to the effect of "My name is bond, James Bond". All 6 actors that played Bond are represented. There are also some other callouts and instructional callouts. The game relies more on the screen for specific instructions. I feel this is appropriate as too many instructional callouts don't fit this style of game and would get distracting once the rules were learned.
I also feel like the modes themselves really bring out the feeling of movies without clips and dialog. For a great example of this chose the 1 ball wizard mode at the start instead of a regular game. You'll get some time to build up the value of the "bomb" by hitting switches then have to quickly diffuse it but knocking down the in line drops and locking a ball. This kind of tension is in a lot of the Bond films, and unlike the films you won't always diffuse the bomb in time.
I would disagree that there is a "shameful lack of assets". Unlike the pro/prem/LE models that cover only the Sean Connery Bond movies (all of which came out before I was born) this version covers the era of Bond in the late 70s, 80s, and 90s that I remember growing up. It covers all the films in the franchise. When some people say "assets" they mean movie clips with sound. This works well on games like TBL where there are natural stops in the game where the ball is not in play and these clips can be watched. For this style of game it really wouldn't make any sense, especially when they already have a version of the game they did that with and in that version some of the clips get annoying fast.