ActRaiser

"The genre-defying classic!"

This is a great game that is quite hard to classify. It has action but it isn’t a pure action game. It has a town building simulation as well. On with the review.

Graphics: 9/10
With very detailed and stylish sprites, these are great graphics for the early SNES days. The graphics are not eyesores by any means. They might not look that great today but they were something back in 1991.

Sound: 10/10
The music is very very well composed and the quality is probably the best on the system despite it being an early Super Nintendo game. The composer, Yuzo Koshiro, is the maestro responsible for the ingenious orchestral score featured in ActRaiser. Some of his other works include The Revenge of the Shinobi (Sega Genesis), Streets of Rage (Sega Genesis), and Shenmue (Dreamcast).

Replay Value: 6/10
Once you beat the game once there honestly isn’t that much to do with it afterwords. There is a different difficulty setting but I don’t think anyone would replay this game more than 3 or 4 times at the most because it will get repetitive.

Story: 8/10
Demons have overrun the earth and it is up to you with the help of your faithful cherub to restore peace to the world. What makes this interesting is that you are a god of some sort. When you go into the monster fighting levels you possess a statue and fight to clear the monsters from that area. While the plot isn’t perfect or complex it deserves this credit because is an idea they used so they could make a game as interesting as this.

Control: 10/10
The controls are laid out well. There are no problems with response and it is very easy to get a feel for the controls. The control style is very simple because some of the buttons on the conroller aren’t used.

Gameplay: 9/10
Each area you visit consists of two acts and simulation. The acts are side-scrolling, sword-swinging levels featuring some light strategy. During the simulation you instruct the people what to do and how to build the town, (as the cherub). Also you use your bow to fend off monsters attacking the town then you have the people seal monster lairs. Every citizen in your towns worship you. The world population determines what level you are. Items can be obtained as offerings from your towns. Put simply ActRaiser is a blast to play.

Overall: 9/10
ActRaiser is definetly a classic that all should play through at least once. Try to get your hands on this game at all costs, this is one of the very best video games you can play. Enix you’ve done it again!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/02, Updated 01/01/02