after watching a particular game review on youtube i became reinterested in playing actraiser. unlike most of the games i’m interested in replaying, i don’t really have a long involved history with actraiser. in fact, i remember only renting it for a weekend and becoming quickly disinterested. i don’t think i ever played it past the 2nd town. not necessarily disinterested because it was a bad game, it just took a really spectacular game to hold my interest when i was a teenager.

the game is a hybrid of arcade fantasy fighters (like magic sword or golden axe), a city simulation, and an rpg. revisiting the city sim portion is what wanted me to play the game again. i played for a little while last night and then some more this morning and was able to finish the game. it’s not that long of a game with 6 cities that have two stages each and then a final boss showdown. i’d say the game has a medium difficulty level. some of the bosses are fairly easy and others are pretty tough. i used the magic stardust spell often to get through the tougher bosses. the stages vary in difficulty as well, the harder ones being in the jungle and winter climates. the 1up system is interesting. 1up’s only apply for the stage you are currently playing. so if you have 3 lives and you lose them all on one stage the game isn’t actually over. you just end up back at the sky palace with another chance to try again. that being said, i think i could have beaten the game when i was younger if i had put some effort into it. 1ups and health are fairly placed throughout the stages so that they aren’t impossible to beat. i’d say the most difficult and frustrating part is trying to avoid dying by falling into a pit, lava, or spikes. also the more you play a stage and get used to the layout and enemies, the easier it becomes to play.

play control for the game is actually pretty fluid. the jumping is kind of stiff, but the game is very lenient with landing on ledges. many times i thought i misstepped a jump yet ended up securely on a ledge anyways. so this aspect makes up for the somewhat stiff jumping. my only other minor complaint is that it’s kind of difficult to land a jump attack without getting injured in the process.

i mentioned that i was intrigued by the city sim gameplay peviously. playing it now, i’d be hardpressed to call this a “sim”. there’s hardly any sim elements besides growing the population of the cities. so it’s somewhat clumsy with the city simulation attempt, however, i really like the idea how the sim and combat portions are interrelated. for instance, the population of the cities determines which experience level you are, not how many enemies you’ve killed in combat. also the type of spells you can cast and how often are determined by the goings on of the city folk. solving the quests of the citizens is the more interesting aspect of the cities, not really the simulation gameplay itself.

now to backtrack some…actraiser was one of the first games to launch with the north american release of the snes. i remember getting all hyped up by the teaser shots of actraiser in nintendo power. i remember the initial game coverage as well. i was amazed by the graphics, it was a such a huge departure from the capabilities of the NES. the game still looks pretty awesome (during the combat portions at least). it especially is impressive considering this was basically a launch title. the music is good too, some of the tracks reminded me of music from the snes star wars games.

overall, i’d say that actraiser is indeed a good game. however, i don’t think i’d label it a must play classic.

Comments are closed.