Classic Action: Devilish

"Fun while it lasts!!"

Those collectors such as myself know of a small little Megadrive title called Bad Omen. Bad Omen was brought stateside by Sage's Creation as Devilish on the Genesis. Essentially a clone of Breakout, what made this title unique is the fact that the playfield scrolled like a shooter with your ball as the ammo, it took place is dungeons/clock towers/floating palaces/and even underwater. A fun title with a rocking soundtrack for it's time and decent graphics, highly playable, highly reccommended and pretty fun to boot. Sage's Creation also ported it over to the Game Gear for what would be Devilish Light for the most part. Now 2005 a company from Japan called StarFish had taken the classic Devilish and remixed it for the most part to bring us Devilish :Ball Bounder. I think that this could have been done as a GBA title as the touch screen really has no use however for what it is the game is fun, on to the my review.

Graphics: Again the game takes place in many supernatural settings, dungeons etc..The levels from the first one have been re-done and only look slightly familiar to the original. For a DS game I think they could have utilized the hardware a bit better, the static cinemas preceding the levels are well drawn though, and the levels themselves scroll smoothly, i'm not sure what version IGN had because they claimed the levels were out of sync etc.. I had no sync probs with mine. The graphics get the job done. The paddles and ball are clear as well as all the legions of the undead and work well together.

Music:The original Devilish had a great sync heavy soundtrack with a really good bassline, I was looking forward to this version on the DS and was hoping StarFish utilized the hardware to get a good pumping soundtrack, however the soundtrack is serene with only a few levels that start to jam out a bit, level three comes to mind. If you listen carefully and if you are a true gamer you can spot the remixed tunes from the original game.The sound of the ball hitting the paddle and walls as well as creatures is very clear and works well. All in all sound fits with what's going on on screen

Story:The original had you as a prince the blue sphere trying to rescue your princess from the evil devil Y. This version even though I don't know Japanese from the cinemas it almost looks like your princess gets knocked off and you are out from revenge, I say that because they show a body laying in a pool of blood during the static cinemas. So you are turned into a sphere again and make your way through five levels of >>> see next item

Gameplay: You are turned into a blue sphere again and make your way through five levels of brick busting/dungeon crawling/demon slaying fun. Call it mega deluxe breakout call it what you want, I enjoy this type of game, it's really fun. You hit your sphere with two paddles the lower paddle is defense the upper paddle is offense and can be turned in a complete circle to help guide the sphere against the baddies. The levels are divided out into three per level two main and one boss encounter, bosses range from cool to obscure with the half naked harpy boss from level two coming to mind as obscure. There are power ups to be found and hit in the form of chests, they contain many items of use including icons to turn your sphere into a rocket, make it go through walls slow it down one icon turns it yellow I haven't figured out what this does, although it may double your points, there are also many 1 ups to be found, which brings me to my next point, you can finish this game in one sitting ALTHOUGH many of the levels have multiple paths so there is some re-play value there. I'm not sure if there are any unlockables just yet but i'm working on it.

Summed Up: It's hard for me to recommend this game to anyone other than die hard importers and collectors such as myself on one hand you have a really fun action title that will keep you busy for a few hours. On the other you have a 50 dollar title <import only folks> and for 50 bucks there are a few other titles that come to mind, Meteos is one as well as Gundam RPG on DS. HOWEVER for what it is and for bragging rights , not necessarily to show what the DS can do as this title doesn't utilize the touch screen, BUT I guarantee not many people will hear of this game. FOR COLLECTORS A 7, FOR THE CASUAL GAMER A 5.

On another note this title seems like one of those import titles you wish you had bought when it was cheap. There is a certain charm that makes this game worth picking up. So again i'm middle of the road on this one. HOWEVER you won't regret your purchase either way.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/05