Crypt Killer (known as Henry Explorers in Japan) is an arcade video game produced by Konami. It was then released in 1997 for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation home consoles. The game was also released in Japan for the PC. The Saturn version made use of Sega's virtua gun which was developed for the Virtua Cop series of games. It was also compatible with the many lightguns produced for the PlayStation, namely the Konami Justifier. Scenery visuals and characters were all in 3D, while most of the enemies were in "flat" 2D sprites. Despite its horror theme the game doesn't take the theme seriously at all, relying on extensive gameplay instead due to its difficulty.
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While burning new Saturn games to play with my recently acquired Virtua Gun, I mistook Konami's Crypt Killer for Corpse Killer, which it is decidedly not. This is thankfully for the better as I have no illusions about how bad Corpse Killer is, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Crypt Killer is a solid, competent light gun shooter. I am also notoriously easy to please when it comes to these kinds of games, if me actively trying to download and burn Corpse Killer was any indication.
In a way this feels like the perfect follow-up to Powerslave with its heavy Egyptian aesthetics and a gigantic floating head acting as your guide. While Powerslave never took itself too seriously, Crypt Killer is definitely more jocular in tone. The game is divided into six levels, with each having branching paths. You only need to beat two levels to complete the game, but you're able to continue playing afterwards, with routes you've already taken being blocked off. This allows you to view all four of Crypt Killer's endings in a single session, assuming you're skilled enough to hang on to all your credits (or have an Action Replay like I do.)
The graphics are... not great. Everything is incredibly blocky even for a game of this era, and textures are so lacking in detail you might be left scratching your head trying to figure out what it is you're even looking at. The soundtrack is nothing spectacular, and Crypt Killer doesn't do anything particularly unique for the kind of game it is, but it still plays well enough and is a perfectly decent way to kill a couple hours.
So, yeah. Another 3/5 from me. I'm turning into Adam Sessler.
In a way this feels like the perfect follow-up to Powerslave with its heavy Egyptian aesthetics and a gigantic floating head acting as your guide. While Powerslave never took itself too seriously, Crypt Killer is definitely more jocular in tone. The game is divided into six levels, with each having branching paths. You only need to beat two levels to complete the game, but you're able to continue playing afterwards, with routes you've already taken being blocked off. This allows you to view all four of Crypt Killer's endings in a single session, assuming you're skilled enough to hang on to all your credits (or have an Action Replay like I do.)
The graphics are... not great. Everything is incredibly blocky even for a game of this era, and textures are so lacking in detail you might be left scratching your head trying to figure out what it is you're even looking at. The soundtrack is nothing spectacular, and Crypt Killer doesn't do anything particularly unique for the kind of game it is, but it still plays well enough and is a perfectly decent way to kill a couple hours.
So, yeah. Another 3/5 from me. I'm turning into Adam Sessler.