Magician Lord

"Fusion of side-scrolling shooter and platform combined equals the best game of its time"

Alpha Denshi (aka ADK) wasn't exactly the best game developing company, but in the 90's right when the neo geo system was released they made a masterpiece, a side scrolling action/adventure platform called Magician Lord.

Story: 1
The story in this game is as generic as they get. Evil forces attempts to destroy the world, and its up to one valiant warrior to stop it and restore peace to the land. In this case, Az Atorse has stolen the eight books of wisdom, and its up to the young magician Elta to retrieve the books while slaying Az Atorse's evil army and the evil lord himself.

Graphics:9
While they can't compare to today's standards, back in the 90's they were considered top notch. Enemy are big and detailed, ranging from your average undead to abominations that only exist in fantasy movies. Background are colourful and pleasing to look at, from a run down temple to massive underground maze and many more.

Sound: 7
There is not much that can be said about the sounds in the game, Just your usual shot, explosion, and the muffled scream you can barely hear when you get hit. The music however are very good and goes well with the level. Just by hearing it a while makes it stick in my head for days.

Gameplay: 7
Controls for the game is as simple as they get, and thats a good thing. Joystick moves our hero, while button 1 and 2 fires and jump respectively. The game uses a change system where in certain parts of the game you'll find colored orbs, grabbing one will change Elta into a completely different form, with brand new attacks. For example, obtaining a red orb changes Elta into a dragon warrior who breaths deadly breath of napalm, or by obtaining a green orb changes Elta into a sword wielding samurai that slice and dice through waves of enemy with razor sharp blades.

On top of the change orbs, there are power up orbs that further increases your attack power of the current form, making your journey even easier. But when there is advantages, there's also disadvantages. First off, your lifebar is just 2 or 3 bar (depending on the difficulty) and you have 2 bar for your alternate form, which means getting two hits will change you back to Elta, not only that but you also lose 1 power up orbs per hit. Perhaps the biggest problem in the game is the fact that after you get hit, there is almost no invincibility period, which means you can suffer multiple attacks and lose a life in the end, and this is quite common as enemy shots are as big as those in side scrolling shooter games, and since Elta has a big hit detection, its almost impossible to dodge in certain sections . Also, you must reach certain sections of the current level fast or else the amount of enemies doubles, and if you turtle around too much you'll face the worst possible punishment, a massive, ugly creature will descent and torture you until you die, and there is nothing you can do about it because you cannot kill it. worst of all, sometime even after losing a life, the creature will not leave, thus eating your lives and ultimately your credit.

Replayability: 5
If you manage to beat the game (no shame if you used a good $10 or so on it though it would be a waste) you'll probably won't want to play it again (especially if it ate $10 out of your pockets) but some might want to perfect the game, and those that can beat the game in one credit can be called king/queen of platform games, because in my opinion, platform games don't get anymore difficult than this.

Overall :9
Most people might be turned off by the insane difficulty Magician Lord delivers, but for those who looks for challenges, this is your game, it will give you a new edge.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/06