ActRaiser

"A story of the little angel that could..."

Actraiser. While I'm still trying to figure out what that means, I've been having a nice enjoyable experience playing this side-scroller disguised as a building sim-or is it the other way around? No matter. Any game which has a little angel(or cupid, rather) shooting arrows at monsters to protect a whole bunch of vaguely Greek-looking people isn't going to be taking itself too seriously. Think about it, though-this could actually be how God does things. Except he employs a few more angels in this task. (Or maybe not, I can see the meeting with his superiors: ''Yes, so you've been assigned to be the god of this place? Well, all the really cool angels with flaming swords and scythe haloes have been assigned to more important matters, like battling Satan...but hm, let's see...wait! How about this guy! Okay, so he looks more like something that should be on a Hallmark card, but he does have a bow and arrows! And a butt that you'll swear you saw on a Coppertone bottle. How can you go wrong with that? Off you go now, I want that place monster-free by the next millenium. What's that? Okay, you can take this sword along. But we'll be needing that later, so don't get it chipped!'')

GRAPHics: Nothing in particular to write home about, but this was a first-generation SNES game anyway, so that's really no surprise. Actually, it's kinda cute-Enix seems to reject black outlines of the characters' features in the sim, returning to the squished-together pixel art that we all thought had died out with Super Mario Bros. 1! Thank you for that nostalgic moment(which is repeated in Soul Blazer too, BTW.) The fighting portion of the game features much more detailed characters, although anybody familiar with a few later SNES side scrollers(Super Metroid?)would laugh at the low framerate and the somewhat blocky sprites. However, when it's good, it's REALLY good. For instance, whenever you descend from your sky palace to fight monsters, the game goes through a REALLY cool Mode-7 sequence wherein you spiral down to see the earth rushing up to meet your hapless face. Also, the game never seems to lose the fact that you're not fighting some run-of-the-mill cute-looking Adventure Island or Secret of Mana monsters, you're fighting demons, and all of the enemies have a decidedly evil demeanor(sometimes it's just the nasty facial expressions, other times it's the skull prominently substituted for a head. And the bosses, though not all are obviously scary, have an ending sequence wherein you see close-ups of their ugly heads. And the last boss is your basic Dark Lich-type character too. What am I trying to say? There's so much satisfaction in bashing their EVIL heads in that you'll actually enjoy the

SOUND of your guy going ''Hah!'' whenever he swings the sword, rather than being annoyed by the repetition. Yes, the sounds are pretty basic, with the dull THUD of an enemy exploding when you hit him, and the multiple explosions(which sound vaguely like a motorboat) when bosses explode. And your character groaning whenever he takes a hit. There seriously aren't that many mentionable sounds in the side-scrolling parts. However, in the sim, sounds are not only better, but essential-you need to hear the cues of the monsters coming out of the generators and attacking certain village dwellings in order to be able to respond effectively. Oh, and did I mention that Enix makes rather good music too? The side-scroller tunes are nice, and almost hummable on occasion, but the real strength is, again, in the simulation aspect. A low, melancholy, almost-peaceful-but-not-quite tune is played over a backdrop of your citizens building a town and your angel frantically flying everywhere to shoot down the monsters roaming the skies. The incongruity of it is almost laughable. The second, and more interesting tune, is played when your citizens discover music. The theme is a bit slower, but for some odd reason, it seems happier than the first. Anyway, it fits with the general thrust of the

STORY: If there's one thing that Enix does well, and really well, it's crafting an interesting, if sometimes overlong, story. It's interesting to see the viewpoint from the god's perspective, and certain events, when seen from above, actually do make you think about these things. What I personally thought was that I was singularly unqualified for godhood, simply because whenever somebody came to me with a request, I was tempted to say: ''Piffle! I care not about thy worthless life, knave!'' That's why Jesus runs the universe and I don't. Anyway, it still boils down to saving the world from the guy with a skull head by being a good swordsman and a good urban planner, but it's an interesting journey.

GAMEPLay: I found the sim to be an interesting exercise, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was no real immediacy to it...your town lived no matter how long you left it alone, land cleared of debris or marsh or snow remained that way, and monster generators, once destroyed, never returned. To put it more bluntly: Once you've built one town, you've built 'em all. The sim aspect of the game was really interesting on the face of it, but seemed particularly shallow once you did it 3 or 4 times. Only the items and stories used to trigger town events changed, there was nothing but essential repetitivity after a while. (Ah, the curse of Enix, doomed to make innovative ideas that fail in faulty implementation.) I did personally enjoy the side-scrolling part of it, although I may be oversympathetic due to the fact that this was a very early game in the SNES's life. There are. however, rather major control problems, as your character moves jerkily and jumps in a somewhat leaden fashion. Even when you master the controls, it's almost impossible to acheive the normal lightning-quick responses we can do in better games, simply because your guy is too slow(or the enemies too fast) to do any serious dodging. Strategy for bosses? Get close and hack away! Dodging is for the weak! Still, the game isn't particularly challenging, excepting perhaps the last boss fight(Enix's last bosses tend to be pains in the arse.) You can have fun raising your levels in the sim by using earthquakes and lightning to destroy primitive buildings(God cares about zoning and city-planning issues, apparently)or just cause random miracles to see the pretty graphics. It's a rather fun world, all told, and at least it's better than most of what Enix has to offer. And it has the obligatory text-heavy ending. I don't mind, really. I'm perfectly ready to sit back and read a good story after spending all that time chopping and frantically dodging the last boss. Should you emulate this game? Yes, if you want something fun, novel, and easy to get into. But I wouldn't bother with the cart unless you're an Enix-hound. (Total number of Enix-hounds on GameFAQS: Dais. That is all.)

Nintendo Logic: Since your player is a spirit, he doesn't actually attack on his own-he inhabits a statue of a guy with a sword conveniently placed at the beginning of the level. Now exactly who moves this particular statue of you all the way to the beginning of the NEXT level(since you disposses the statue as soon as you beat the boss?) Are your subjects THAT helpful? Who transports said statue over mountains and through deserts and seas? HE should be considered the hero. Seriously, it does get really weird worshiping an animated statue all the time...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/23/00, Updated 09/23/00