Demon's Crest

"Shines like gold"

Back in the day of the SNES, when it was bombarded with clichéd action games and horrible sidescrollers, not many games could have a feature that was distinctive enough from the next box on the shelf to warrant a buy. Most of these games could be summed up as being about a sueprhuman/woman who have powers. He could jump high, and probably had a gun. Then the year 1994 rolled around, and someone brought a little something different to the table. The publisher, Capcom, alive with its Megaman X series at the time, pumped out a game that didn't have a profound effect on gaming but it’s what we know as a ''sleeper hit''

zzzzz…..zzzzz

If you're used to games such as Super Mario World then this will be a radical change for you. You don’t control a happy-go-lucky, nice guy who’s out to save the world by jumping high and eating mushrooms. No, that’s not what Demon’s Crest is about. The protagonist happens to be an evil, abominable, flying demon named Firebrand. You’ll begin as this flying demon (He glides only horizontally after you jump) but there happens to be a lot more. For the first few levels, some might get the impression that Demon’s Crest is another rundown, mundane attempt at redefining the genre.

After the initial levels, however, there’s a lot of game to be had. After you beat a boss, you’ll be awarded a crest. This crest will allow our hero to turn into different types of demons aside from the fireball spitting, airborne beast that we were given control of at the beginning of the game. Some of these include: A demon form that allows us to explore the eerie underwater parts of a stage. While another will allow you to fly higher in the air than you could ever fathom. The demon has wings that stretch the length of two men, and a face that’s just as nasty as the air blades he attacks his enemies with. These different demon forms will make you have to go through each level a couple of times to pick out all of the secrets. In most levels, there’s about another three levels or so hidden, which you’ll need to find with your gaming skill. Not finding them doesn’t prove your gaming skill inept, because Demon’s Crest can have you playing it on end for years, without you finding everything.

Another time when you beat a boss, it might land you another crest but this one is a bit more peculiar. It doesn’t change your form to some hulking demon that grants its special abilities to the player; but instead you’ll have a crest that builds upon your base demon’s stats. Allowing you to blow through some walls, fly, and make little, whirling tornados for you to jump on. Again, with these added abilities, you can now find new, unexplored levels, hidden secrets, and other sorts of stuff.

Each level is extremely short, and will only take you about 5 minutes to beat at max. There’s a lot of enemies packed into them as well. The enemies come in all different shapes and sizes like most other games. While in the flying form, one might think that you can just glide your way right across a whole level. This is not the case, there will be flying armors, with half mangled corpses inside of them, to stop you. On the ground, you’ll face everything from gruesome beasts hanging from the walls to trolls that throw skulls of their last victims at you down a hill. The monsters and challenges help to set the mood that’s creepy to say the least.

Ohhh…scary

To set the mood even further, you have the graphics. Ill looking dirt that has skeleton arms coming out of it to grab at you. Ghosts that eat the fire off of torches to make the a place pitch black. Ground covered will dead moss and ivy that’s looks like it could die at any moment. Buildings that are stained with where the water has been on them too much. Stone floors that have withstood the test of time. All in a dark age typesetting where the belief in magic and monsters was at its highest. All the textures work together to create a certain ambience, that’s eerie and creepy to say the least.

The music however is just a couple of measly beats. Mostly these beats come off to the player as melancholy. You won’t get anything too “cool” here. They seemingly just threw the background music in thinking that you won’t be noticing it. The sound effects are done well. Bosses let out a deafening scream as you hit them. Regular beasts make indescribably nasty sounds that might make you think twice about hitting them again.

What you have here is a perfect example of a great, well through out, game unfortunately being overshadowed by the release of a monster title at the time. The in-game textures look beautiful. The gameplay is fast and smooth, never really a dull moment. Somehow, though, the game got passed up by the thousands. Poor souls.

Final verdict

Graphics = 10
Gameplay = 9
Sound = 7
Control = 8

Final = 9

Probably one of the most over looked games on the SNES to date.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/03, Updated 07/29/03