Out of This World

"Awesome SNES port of a great PC game"

Out of this World was released way back in 1991 and it was a revolutionary game for it's time. It was originally released for the PC and was heralded as one of its best games. Let's just say that the SNES port is a very impressive translation of it.

Story: You play as scientist Lester Knight Chaykin. One night after working late, you are sucked into another world (hence the title.) The next thing you know you are in a pool of water about to drown. After you climb out, you are chased by a huge alien beast. Luckily, some friendly (or are they?) aliens shoot the beast. They also shoot you as well. When you come to, you are in a cage with another alien who was also captured. This new world is not a pleasant one as you can tell already.

Graphics: Wow. The graphics were kick-ass back when this game was released and they are still good even today. The graphics are actually polygonal! There is great animation in all of the characters and cool special effects like the laser blasts of guns and the glow of force fields.

Sound: The sound in the game is very appropriate for the the things you see in it. In some scenes there is no music at all, but there are some great tunes while you are being pursued by enemies and in other important situations. The sound effects are equally as good as the tunes and better in some respects. When a gun is fired it sounds like a futuristic laser gun should sound. Subtle things like the sounds of your feet when you are running add to the richness of the audio.

Control: This is the key aspect of the game since without it, it would be mere eye-candy. Not so. The control is virtually perfect. None of the things like drawing your gun and firing it are hard to do. Running is simple and easy to do. Now for the gameplay portion of the review. Some of the puzzles in the game are a bit hard, but don't let that turn you off to the game. Also, you will probably die quite a few times in this game, but don't let that discourage you in the least. Delphine Software is definitely a great developer and the control they used in this game influenced their later games like Flashback, another great game.

Fun Factor: I had a lot of fun with this title. I'm not going to lie: Like I already said, you will probably die quite a bit but it is worth it to finally complete a puzzle or get past a part in the game that you were stuck on for a while. If you like action games that require some patience, then give this game a try.

Replay Value: Good enough. After you finish the game, you will probably want to go back and play through it again at least once to try and die less.

Overall: This is definitely one of the better SNES games out there. The graphics are great, the sound and music is good, the control is awesome, and the story is good too. There aren't any real flaws with this game. I got it for Christmas when it was released and I was not disappointed in the least. Go buy this game, especially since you can probably get it cheap now that it's an older game. A true classic.

Story- 8/10 Graphics- 10/10 Sound- 9/10 Control- 10/10 Fun Factor 8/10 Replay Value- 7/10 Overall- 9/10
Final Score: 95/100

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/00, Updated 08/22/00