LandStalker

"A fair-good action rpg game for Sega Genesis."

The first time I played Landstalker back in 1996, when I saw Nigel, the Elf boy main character, I said to myself ''Gee, he reminds me of Link from Nintendo!'', but I had more to learn about Nigel.

Obviously in this game, Nigel is a treasure hunter, doing anything he must do to gain all types of treasures, items, money, and so on. Only he without a doubt was nothing in skill and strength compared to Link. But that is alright because NIGEL was in Sega Genesis, heh.

In the beginning of the game, Nigel is jumping off pillars and climbing ropes that make your head and jaw almost fall off your neck, it looks like any normal human being would fall and die any second going near a maze or adventure like that. But for Nigel, he will do anything for treasure, and he does it blasted well.

Nigel climbs through a small cave that contains goblins, and with a few swings of his sword all instantly die. Pretty impressive, I must say. Nigel finally discovers the ''Treasure of Gaia'', and takes it, and goes back to a large village.

He goes to a shopowner that offers him 5,000GP for the treasure, and obviously, Nigel sells it to him, earning 5,000GP!

Nigel hears trouble, as he saves a small little creature ''Friday'', from other evil treasure hunters as well. Now, Nigel and Friday start on a quest for some of the greatest riches of Nigel's dreams... the former king of the land's treasures! Can Nigel recover the treasures...? That is up to YOU to find out and carry out!

Graphics: 60%
Words: Good graphics for its time. Nigel's moves and movements were done nicely, the characters you fought, and talked to well actually quite well. Not great graphics, but very well.

Sound: 8%
Words: I hated the sounds since they were so loud and sounded like metal scratching on a chalkboard, and the music tunes were disgraceful, they sounded so bland and repetitive!

Replay: 0%
Words: No replay value whatsoever.

Gameplay: 55%
Words: The gameplay was... okay and fair. They made some of the puzzles FAR to STUPID and difficult to figure out. Nigel's moves were not even fast enough to react with some of the puzzles you had to do. Other than that, his movements walking around and attacking were okay.

Story: 15%
Words: Nigel and Friday must go on a quest to find treasures from a deceased king? Want to play? Not many people will.

Characters: 20%
Words: The fact is, the CHARACTERS in this game were crappy. Nigel was just very odd to use, being the elf boy, and Friday, who looks like a bird combined with a turkey, and the other treasure hunters, the weirdo woman, the stupid ogre and frail little blue bird. Stupid characters.

Final Words: Not one of Genesis' greats, and even though there are not THAT many rpg-action games to compare it with on Genesis, that is not how the rating-review system works. I gave Landstalker for Sega Genesis a fair 5. Not a terrible game, really, fun at some times, but too hard, stupid, and a little bit uncomfortable at times due to the mazes and puzzles that could make your blood pressure go up like 150/98 for a few seconds, and in some cases, make motion sickness occur. But if you do not have those problems, a fun game to play... kind of.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/02, Updated 02/13/02