Episode 8: Actraiser
Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this review all legal rights to the game in this review are owned by Square Enix, Quintet, and Nintendo.
"Hello I'm the Classic Critic; I remember it so you're not required to." Airnaruto said before turning to his co-host.
"Hello folks I'm the irate werewolf, I play them so you won't get to." MisstressofDawn said.
"Today we're going to talk about the golden age of early video game consoles, the 16 bit era." Airnaruto said as we see some familiar titles pop up on the screen ranging from Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3, Street Fighter 2, Super Ghouls N Ghosts, El viento, Chuck Rock, Magician Lord, and the early EA sports series.
"Ah yes that was truly the best part of my childhood as a gamer, the games that were released from 1991 to 1997, were often considered technological marvels and gaming masterpieces whether it was the graphics, the soundtracks, the controls or the characters in the games themselves." Dawn said.
"That's true Dawn and during that time Nintendo and SEGA were at the frontlines in the gaming war with one another. The Sega Genesis system had some good games but for the most part it was straight forward two dimensional game play or just revamps of the 8 bit games from the master system, in contrast to the Super Nintendo which had a much more diverse range of games and of course a few of them brought a lot of controversy to the company and the one we're reviewing today while may not be in my game library is often considered one of the greatest games to ever come out of this era on the SNES." Air said.
"Really what is it, Super Mario world?" Dawn asks.
"No, try again." Air replies.
"Is it Super Ghouls and Ghosts?" Dawn asks.
"Wrong." Airnaruto says bluntly.
"Is the game Super R-type?" Dawn asks thinking carefully.
"Wrong again." Airnaruto says.
"Okay I give up what game is it?" Dawn asks.
"Well…" Airnaruto starts to say before he's interrupted by a knock on the door.
(Knock knock)
"Hold that thought Dawn." Airnaruto said as he heads to the door and opens it. "Yeah this is Airnaruto45?" He asked the figure who handed him a package and a clipboard. Airnaruto then signs it, "here you go and thanks." Airnaruto said before turning back to where Mistress was.
"So who was that and is the game you were talking about in that package?" She asked.
"Yes and it was the mailman so let's pop this box open." Airnaruto answered taking a knife to the box so he could open it and get the game out. He then reached into the box and pulled out the game cartridge and handed it to Mistress. "This was the game I was talking about." he said revealing a game cartridge that had a sky blue background and intricately drawn letters above what looked like a sword blade.
Dawn stared at the cartridge questionably, before turning to the Classic critic. "I don't get it, Actraiser? I've never heard of this one." She said while arching an eyebrow.
"Well I'm not surprised." Airnaruto muttered.
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN?!" Dawn snarled viciously.
"I mean that I'm not surprised that you never heard of this game because very few here in North America do remember it. Now while I haven't played this game myself, I have read quite a few positive reviews on it and watched several play throughs on the internet. I will also admit that outside of Japan the game didn't sell all that well especially in Europe where it only sold a tenth of the total copies that were sold in Japan and in North America the sold copies total was less than half of that in Japan, but to this day, this game has maintained a strong global cult following. So Released in Japan on November 16, 1990, in North America in November 1991, and in Europe on March 18 1993 the game is Actraiser of course since I've never played this game myself Dawn and I are just going to go over the history, the pros, and the cons of this game now on with review." Airnaruto said.
"Wait a minute Classic, why did it never get that far off the ground outside of Japan?" Mistress asked him.
"Well it was because of the usage of certain religious content and this was specially taken seriously in North America, so much so the names of the protagonist and antagonist had to be changed. For example, the protagonist in the American and European versions is known as "the master", while the antagonist in both of those versions is known as Tanzra
Though if you haven't guessed they were originally called God and Satan/Lucifer respectively and that the game play also included several Judeo-Christian references aside from the main characters, such as the people clasping their hands and kneeling to pray to the master, or the fact that you can see the spiritual war between heaven and hell where you control a cherub while having to destroy all the demons in a certain region." Airnaruto said.
"The game is pretty much two fold, one half is side scroll action-adventure platform where you as the master descend to Earth and begin slaying the demons in the forest, once you've beaten the centaur boss you think you're ready for another side scrolling adventure level when low and behold you get put into the other half of the game; a Sims City style game where you have to help the people build their civilization, seal demon lairs, accept offerings of magic for your arsenal or offerings that could help other lands, and help with whatever problems the populace comes across by performing miracles and like most RPG games you do get level up the more your civilizations advance and the populace grows." Dawn explained as the next category regarding the game was revealed.
"The best parts of the game are the side scrolling action levels with their beautifully detailed backgrounds and the musical score of the game was put together by legendary Japanese video game music composer Yuzo Koshiro best known for his work with Revenge of the Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and many other video games, I mean seriously getting him to compose the score for this game is a God sent gift." Airnaruto explained before moving on to his next joyful rant. "I'm also happy that the game got a downloadable release on the Nintendo Wii back in 2007 so now not only can the generation that played this game can nostalgically reminisce on the game's stunning 2D graphics and the musical score, but younger generations can see what this game represented in our childhoods." Airnaruto said before Dawn took over.
"There are several flaws with the game though, specifically in the Sims element where on some occasions you tell the people to seal up a demon lair but they instead build somewhere else and it gets quite annoying after a while, in fact the whole Sims element of the game is the major flaw along with the fact that using magic on the bosses makes them too easy to beat and all the while boring." Dawn complained.
"The game did get a sequel in 1993 but it was actually a prequel set around the time when The Master kicks Tanzra out of heaven, and then descends to Earth to fight 13 demons, 6 sub bosses and 7 major bosses who pretty much take up physically representations of the seven deadly sins. For example Sloth is a giant slug, Envy's a giant floating ghost's head with several smaller heads floating around it, Gluttony's an ant queen, Wrath's a rip off of the Greek titan of fire, Lust is this weird alien bug looking thing, Greed's a dragon, and pride's a cog with a bunch of machines floating around him. Once again the game was met with censorship issues again this time regarding the names of some of the sins I mean they changed Sloth's name to fatigue, Envy became Jealousy, Wrath became Fury, Lust became Deception, and Greed was renamed Doom. Aside from the name changes for the sins, the game also removed the Sims element that was in the first one from the second game. The master was also given an overhaul in terms of his appearance in the second game in the sense they made him look more angelic and maybe even Greco-Roman, but they also gave him a shield and wings plus the flight mechanics for him but while these additions help a bit in the game along with having all your magic with you at the start, they also slow the master down in the terms of the pace he moves at on foot so you're going to end up gliding a lot, as for Tanzra well he looks like what the devil looked like in Monty Python and Holy Grail you know frozen in a lake of fire and having three heads." Airnaruto explained and complained.
"Wow you sure did your research on this game Airnaruto." Dawn said in surprise.
"Thanks Mistress, now let's finish this review." Airnaruto said.
"All in all Actraiser is a true diamond in the rough from the SNES archives with great music, stunning visuals and tough difficulty settings." Airnaruto said.
"True as that may be, but the lone gripe I have with this game was that pushed the envelope on what would be deemed acceptable for a good vs. evil themed game by digging too far into the bag of every religion or mythology like Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Greek and Roman Mythology, and even Norse and Celtic Myths but none the less this game is definitely worth getting downloaded on to your Wii if you're strong willed enough to throw the Wii Classic controller against the wall because of the flaw in the Sims element of the game." Dawn pointed out.
"Therefore Dawn and I give this game a rating of 3 and half stars out of 5." Airnaruto said before we return to him and Dawn. "Well guys that's it for this review catch us next time when we wrap up video game month with a review of another one of last year's top games Assassins Creed 2 so until next time I'm the Classic Critic…" Airnaruto said before Dawn cut him off.
"…And I'm the Irate Werewolf." Dawn said.
"We remember it so you're not required to." They said in unison before the camera cut off.
A/N: Well there you have it guys and note this chapter's purpose was not to Evangelize anyone so until next time Read and review.