Young Merlin

"Could've Been A Contender"

Although my '6' rating might not reflect this, I truly consider 'Young Merlin' to be a game that's a few tweaks and changes away from being a classic. Alas, I cannot grade on potential, and must take the good with the bad. And there is a whole lot of 'good' in this game, but a few poorly-conceived scenes and some minor design flaws bring 'Young Merlin' down to the 'slightly-above-average' range, where games like 'Paperboy' and 'Bubble Bobble 2' shall forever dwell.
The game revolves around the adventures of - believe it or not - a young Merlin the Magician, who seems to have involved himself in a highly intricate quest of political intrigue and delicate diplomacy. Ha! Just kidding. This is an adventure game, and the real purpose of Merlin's quest is to pick up neat-looking items and figure out how to use them. Adventure game designers love little baubles like crystals and mirrors and such, because... well, um... well, because every other fantasy adventure game before this one used crystals and mirrors and such, and it's just what you're supposed to use in games like these. I don't really mind cutesy fantasy items, but I hope that this genre of game isn't forever bound to use them. (A challenge to the game designers of the world: make a fantasy game without using the word 'crystal' once! Can it be done?)
'Young Merlin' is done in the vein of the original 'Legend of Zelda.' You walk little Merlin around a lush medieval-esque world, and you can assign a weapon to one button, and a 'utility' item to another. 'Utility' items encompass such gadgets as a balloon to float your body up mine shafts, or a wrench to do some handyman work. The combat isn't as tight and gritty as it is in the 'Zelda' games, but the puzzle aspects are a bit more varied than the usual 'find-the-key-or-button' antics of good ol' Link.
Unfortunately, while the puzzles have more variety, that doesn't necessarily make them more exciting. Many of the game's mini-quests are what we frustrated adventure gamers like to refer to as 'courier quests.' Courier quests, for those who don't know, are puzzles which are solved by merely bringing Item A to Person B, who gives you Item C, which Person D wants... etc. In essence, you become a delivery person, merely running items all over the map to advance in the game. This game is pretty darn blatant about it, too. Since the cartridge couldn't handle the storage space required for voice samples, the characters can only use thought balloons over their head to convey their needs. So you just talk to a person, look to see what item is in their thought balloon, and go fetch it for them. Not exactly a workout for one's brain.
But unfortunately, the situation gets worse. There are two points in this game where you ride a mine car through a maze. Now, the problems here are many, but here are the basic ones. The car steers TERRIBLY... the controls in these scenes aren't very intuitive, nor are they responsive. And if that weren't bad enough (and believe me, it is), if you make one wrong turn, the car crashes and you're forced to start over from the beginning. And these car scenes are fairly long, so memorizing the correct sequence of turns (which can only be discovered through trial and error) can be a daunting task. Your only hope is to map out the correct route on paper. The entire concept isn't fun in the least, and has nothing to do with the rest of the game, so it should have been omitted from the design back in the planning stages.
But with all of my whining out of the way, I can begin to comment on the hidden pleasures of this game. 'Young Merlin' is rich in one of my favorite gaming intangibles: atmosphere. For some reason, the world of 'Young Merlin' feels fun. The characters are cute, the music is sweet, and even the combat is wholesome and sanitary. And those annoying little imps who follow you around are always good for a chuckle, as they cause poor little Merlin no end of trouble.
The graphics in the game are quite good. All of the art has a hand-drawn cartoonish quality to it, and the characters are large and vibrant. Excellent use of color, as well. It's a very attractive game, especially in the outdoor areas.
'Young Merlin' also has a nice array of sounds and music to tickle your ears. Gentle flute and string sounds pervade much of the game, with pleasant melodies all around. The sounds are very appropriate, and the noise characters make when they speak will probably bring you a chuckle or two.
When it's all added up, 'Young Merlin' is really only hampered by some of its ill-advised sequences, especially the mine car rides, and stale old gaming devices like a hedge maze and block-pushing puzzles. While I do appreciate the game's attempt to break up the 'Zelda'-esque combat with more intellectualy-based challenges, it would have been much preferred if the designers had come up with some new material as opposed to falling back on dusty old gaming cliches.
Now there's no doubt that this review seems to be largely negative. But I don't know... I really DO like this game. Maybe it's just because I'm a 'Zelda' freak and I'm bound to like any reasonably enjoyable game in the same style. Or maybe the game is so sweet that I can't bring myself to be cruel to it. I guess it doesn't matter. What counts is that this game has a lot of enjoyable little parts in it... but the poorer aspects of the game keep the game hovering above mediocrity. Which is a shame, because 'Young Merlin' is so close to becoming a little sleeper classic.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/00, Updated 10/18/00