"Commanding elements was never this much fun"

In this review I will refer to this game as Story of Thor, as I own the European version, which differs in name.

Story of Thor tells the the story of a young prince called Ali. Whilst travelling he finds a shiny golden golden armlet with a nice blue gem stone in it, hidden within a cave. As the player soon finds out, there is another armlet, which is silver with a red stone. These armlets where the weapons of two powerful sorcerers in ancient times, where the bearer of the gold armlet fought the evil bearer of the silver armlet.

Ali puts on the armlet and sets sail for home. As soon as he sets foot upon land, his home island is overrun with monsters and bad guys. You'll learn that the silver armlet was taken as well and that the island is endangered. Ali must go and battle the silver armlet. Ali has some nice skills with weapons, first and foremost with his dagger. But he is also very capable with swords, crossbows and bombs. But is that all with which Ali has to fight? The answer is a gigantic NO. The golden armlet is, unsurprisingly, more than just a pretty piece of jewelry. It has the power to control the spirit of elements. But when the armlets were put away, the spirits were sealed as well. In order to defeat the evil, Ali must awaken the spirits and command them in order to be victorious.

On to the graphics: Story of Thor came out pretty late in the lifespan of the Genesis. It was a setting example of what the Genesis was capable of. Huge 2D sprites, set in varied, lush backgrounds, all delivered in an excellent semi-overhead view. The setting is an Arabian/Persian one, which is most notable in the architecture of the buildings, and most of all in Ali's baggy pants. The game sports a lot of bad guys on screen at once and does slow down on several occasions, but it's not so bad that it spoils the fun. The epic boss battles showed some 3D tricks, which were very impressive for it's time. The game was made in 1994 and it still holds up very well graphically.

Gameplay is were the game truly shines. Although Story of Thor looks like an RPG, it plays more in the vein of Legend of Zelda. You take control of the fighting yourself. Ali can launch a big combo with kicks and his dagger, but he does some other tricks quite as well, most notably his backflip slash, which silences a lot of bad guys. The fighting is really gratifying, as each blow that you land gives an awesome sound effect and stuns your enemy. You'll soon be looking for more enemies and the most effective and/or fun way to kill them.

The aforementioned spirits come in to play in the battling as well, since you have quite a lot of control. For example, the second spirit, Efreet, the spirit of fire, rages through battle well on his own. But when Ali's in a tight spot, you can steer him in your direction, launch fireballs from his mouth, or explode in a huge firestorm, all with the same button. Be wary that whenever a spirit is with you, they use up spirit points (SP), one of the two gauges shows how much there is left of those points (guess what the other gauge is for). If you are no longer in need of a spirit or your SP runs out, they can and will disappear.

When your SP is recharged, through waiting or item usage, you'll have to look for places to summon them with your armlet. Efreet can be summoned from campfires, burning bushes, torches and even explosions from bombs. One of the most fun elements of the game is finding out which spirit to use in battle or in the various puzzles, which vary from easy to moderately hard, and look for places where you can launch the energy ball from Ali's golden armlet to summon them. The amount of ways in summoning is quite neat, a sign of brilliance from the producers.

There's an inventory in this game, but you won't be buying all your stuff to fill it. You'll find items like food, weapons and stat enhancers scattered through the entire island and from your enemies. One item is more effective than another and soon you'll be thinking which item you should drop in favor of the new found items, as the inventory is quite limited. And you'll have to consider which gauge you want to keep up. The menu's are adequate, nothing special, you can save wherever you want, although not everywhere in dungeons.

The sound is very impressive for a Genesis games, some great background songs fitting for the mood and appropriate grunts for each enemy. Although Ali has limited screams and grunts, they are sufficient enough to not become tedious. The spirits each have there own set of sounds and as mentioned before, the sounds in battles are gratifying.

Replay value is quite high for an action RPG game like this. There are hidden items and weapons all over the island and you can search for them all. There is a ranking at the end as well, in which things are tracked, like how many enhancers were found for the spirits, how fast you finished the game and most interesting of all, how many bad guys you've slain. So you want to kill the most bad guys? Well, go ahead and try it. Want to be overall number one? You'll have to find most items, kill a lot and be fast about it. This is especially fun if you have other people playing the game as well. That is quite possible, since you have 4 save game files.

In the end, put together the not so special but fun story, throw in the very fun puzzles and awesome fighting, add great Genesis graphics, great sound, good replay value and you have an awesome game. In my opinion there is no better game to be found in history.

Score: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/06