Gargoyle's Quest

"Average adventure w/a few RPG elements."

Graphics: 6
Slightly above average, if that. They did display what they were supposed to display. Animation was definately no better than average, though.

Music: 5 Music Range: 3.5-6.5
The music was mostly standard GB music. A few tunes were above average, and a few below.

Challenge: 7 (not included in the overall rating)
Somewhat challenging. The 1st level is challenging and hard to complete. It is something one would expect after one has gotten some skill at this 1st. After beating that, you get a more mild challenge the rest of the time. There were 3 sticking points for me. 1 was in the beginning where you need to ''use'' in front of a baron (or is it a lord?) after getting an item. I didn't realize this and knew that I could wander around for a hr until i did the right thing, or i could look at a guide, so i opted not to waste an hr. The next sticking pt. for me was mid-game where i was asked if i'd do a task by a king (?). To see what would happen, i said no. Then, I wanted to see what was out the door (you are somehow transported to this room when u get there, rather than walking there), so i did that. BUT, for some reason they placed me outside of his castle and outside of a wall, which meant that i couldn't go back in and tell him ''yes''. I thought it didn't matter until i reached an area w/lava later on. At that area, i tried to get across, but i had to get hurt by the lava at least once. I then looked up this situations in a guide and believe it or not, but i was supposed to have gotten more flight and jump power from the king that i said ''no'' to. Figuring that w/o that flight and jump power, i'd eventually come across areas that couldn't be traversed, i realized that it was time to start all over. So, i started at my save, which was right after the 1st lv. The final sticking pt. for me was the 2nd to last boss. I didn't know why i couldn't hurt him, and I lost all my lives, so I decided to make an exception and use the real-time save feature of the bgb emulator and save it before him in order to get more chances at him w/o starting far back. I still didn't see what the problem was, so I again decided not to waste an hr figuring it out, and i checked the guide. Since I'd have added an hour or less to each part that I used the guide for, the challenge w/o help wouldn't have increased much, it just would have been tedious. One last point:
When you die, you keep the vials you've found, which allow you to buy extra turns, so the challenge was somewhat modified for those having a tough time.

Story: 5
It gets points for originality, since you are a gargoyle and those are usually the enemies. But, it loses points on translation (I remember one point where saying ''no'' did what ''yes'' should have done) since the speech didn't flow too well. Really, the quality of the story was average at best.

Play-control: 4

Jump, fly, cling to wall, shoot horizontally. Those are most of the things you can do. And the control while doing them was so-so. There were parts where i felt like the control was lacking, but at others it went well. So, a little below average.

Total Time While Still Fun to Play: 5
It is somewhat fun while you are at it. The sticking points are tedious w/o a guide. Going through it again is pretty easy if you've completed it recently. Beating it probably took me a total of 5 hours, so that wasn't a lot of time. To me, it is definately something to borrow/rent/emulate, rather than buy unless you get it cheaply enough.

Overall: 5

It was fun at times, particularly the flying, some of the story aspects and variety of game play. Limiting the vials to allow one to buy only extra lives was too basic, though. There were several attacks available, and several items, but the items were event items, passive items, and one potion. The last boss and ending were both average. Was it worth my time? Well, an average IAVE (interactive audio/video experience [''video game'']) is good in my book, though I'd rather do an above average one over an average one. So, it wouldn't have been worth my time relative to others that are out there, except for one thing:
I enjoy doing prequels before the sequels, so doing this satisfies me on that extra level. Next, I'll be doing Gargoyle's Quest II, and finally I'll do the great Demon's Crest.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/02, Updated 07/07/02