I love the game's willingness to experiment with itself. Sir Fortesque's a fun enough character to control - his bumbling, gangly nature translates well into his speedy, jerky movement and his attacks that I can't describe in any way besides "panicky" (oh they do their job, but they also go a long way to convey Dan's sense of AAAAAAA KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT). The different weapons lend themselves to a lot of experimentation; having played the game and its latest remake three times, there are ones I gravitate towards once I unlock 'em, but there are so many options to constantly shake it up along the way. Helps as well that what you're doing in each level is often so different, and the level design is so precise, surprisingly intricate in its set pieces for how little space they take up, that the player gravitates towards different weapons to solve different problems. I love the willingness to go from a moral choice segment where you're scrambling around a village solving adventure game puzzles while letting NPCs attack you, to a hedge maze full of riddles, to a gauntlet sequence where you're mowing through a bajillion enemies at once. It's always fun to see what the game will ask next of the player.
Do I need to mention the game's visual influence, clearly pulled from German Expressionist cinema? How well the game implements its weirder niche weapons like the drumsticks, Dragon Armour, and Good Lightning? How cool it is that the Hall of Heroes slowly expands as Dan proves himself? The slightly off-kilter way the gargoyles exposit lore and missions to Dan? There's just so much good stuff here.
MediEvil reminds me a lot of classic Donkey Kong Country or Rayman. Obviously not in its individual elements, but in terms of what the overall pictures are - games whose mechanical identities are presented in a fairly straightforward way early on, then constantly iterated and experimented upon in increasingly creative ways, through the lens of a thematically rich world that continuously evolves in scope as the game progresses. This in spite of the inherently absurd premise - simians recovering bananas from crocodiles, a limbless guy saving the quintessence of a world dreamt into existence, a one-eyed phony knight redeeming his abject failure and death one hundred years ago. It's perhaps a strange comparison, but something to how much faith the game has in itself and its presentation really makes it feel like it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the all-time greats.
Do I need to mention the game's visual influence, clearly pulled from German Expressionist cinema? How well the game implements its weirder niche weapons like the drumsticks, Dragon Armour, and Good Lightning? How cool it is that the Hall of Heroes slowly expands as Dan proves himself? The slightly off-kilter way the gargoyles exposit lore and missions to Dan? There's just so much good stuff here.
MediEvil reminds me a lot of classic Donkey Kong Country or Rayman. Obviously not in its individual elements, but in terms of what the overall pictures are - games whose mechanical identities are presented in a fairly straightforward way early on, then constantly iterated and experimented upon in increasingly creative ways, through the lens of a thematically rich world that continuously evolves in scope as the game progresses. This in spite of the inherently absurd premise - simians recovering bananas from crocodiles, a limbless guy saving the quintessence of a world dreamt into existence, a one-eyed phony knight redeeming his abject failure and death one hundred years ago. It's perhaps a strange comparison, but something to how much faith the game has in itself and its presentation really makes it feel like it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the all-time greats.