This is a game I bought a veeeery long time ago on my Wii Virtual Console, and haven't played in over a decade. I got stuck on the final boss rush and gave up way back when, but Note was talking about it in the Slack chat and it inspired me to give it another try. It wasn't nearly as hard as I remember it, so I'm glad to see that I've in fact gotten a bit better at action platformers in the past ten years XD. I played it on my Wii Virtual Console with my Classic Controller Pro (which I'm loving more and more every time I use it), and it took me about four hours to finish with an ending population of 4620.
You play as the god of a world, awakened by a little angel follower of yours to save the world from the Tanzra, an evil demon lord who defeated you long ago. You go through six worlds saving the people of that world from the monsters that are terrorizing that area.
ActRaiser is a balancing act of two main game modes: the action mode and the sim mode. Each of the six worlds has an introductory action platforming section to save that land from monsters on the surface, and then there is a second action platforming stage to finally rid that world of the monsters lurking beneath. There's also a final boss rush composed of the six bosses in the second action stages from each world followed by Tanzra himself. The American version's action segments were apparently made easier from the Japanese version's, and I appreciate it. For a very early SNES game, it's got a really pleasant sweet spot of difficulty where it isn't too hard but isn't too easy either (despite the controls being a little stiff).
In between the two action segments in each world are a sim section where you play as the little angel follower as you shoot arrows at monsters who spawn around the map. You guide the villagers who live there to start building out their settlements from their starting temple, guiding them to each monster lair to seal it shut. Once all the monster lairs are shut, then you get the opportunity to fight the second action segment in that world. But all is not quite that simple. Each world is plagued with the monsters you must fight, but also physical hindrances you'll need to use your god powers to get rid of. Eliminating trees with lightning, drying up marshes with the sun, fertilizing deserts with rain, and even connecting islands via an earthquake. The citizens themselves also have conflicts between each other that you'll need to solve, and it often involves taking their offerings and bringing them to other settlements to solve problems like needing wool to keep warm, or needing wheat to feed themselves better than existing crops.
Helping out the citizens in these extra ways is usually optional, but it's very important because of how the action and sim segments compliments each other mechanically. The more points you earn in the action segments, the higher your maximum population in that area can be. Your player level is determined by how much total population the world has, and the higher your level, the higher your maximum HP. In addition, your followers can find MP scrolls, magic spells, and even extra lives to help you get through the action segments.
It may be an early SNES game, but the presentation and mechanics hold up really well. There aren't a ton of musical tracks, but what is there is really nice. While there may not be many animations, the player and enemy models are big and detailed. A really impressive bit of design for developers more or less pioneering on what then was such new hardware.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Both types of gameplay are quite simple, but that works really well for the pacing of the game. If either were more complicated, it would bog down the pacing and harm the overall experience. Both aspects may be too simple to be their own game in a satisfactory manner, but paired together like this they make for an all around very complimentary experience. It may be short, but it's well worth trying out if you like action platformers and simple strategy games ^w^
You play as the god of a world, awakened by a little angel follower of yours to save the world from the Tanzra, an evil demon lord who defeated you long ago. You go through six worlds saving the people of that world from the monsters that are terrorizing that area.
ActRaiser is a balancing act of two main game modes: the action mode and the sim mode. Each of the six worlds has an introductory action platforming section to save that land from monsters on the surface, and then there is a second action platforming stage to finally rid that world of the monsters lurking beneath. There's also a final boss rush composed of the six bosses in the second action stages from each world followed by Tanzra himself. The American version's action segments were apparently made easier from the Japanese version's, and I appreciate it. For a very early SNES game, it's got a really pleasant sweet spot of difficulty where it isn't too hard but isn't too easy either (despite the controls being a little stiff).
In between the two action segments in each world are a sim section where you play as the little angel follower as you shoot arrows at monsters who spawn around the map. You guide the villagers who live there to start building out their settlements from their starting temple, guiding them to each monster lair to seal it shut. Once all the monster lairs are shut, then you get the opportunity to fight the second action segment in that world. But all is not quite that simple. Each world is plagued with the monsters you must fight, but also physical hindrances you'll need to use your god powers to get rid of. Eliminating trees with lightning, drying up marshes with the sun, fertilizing deserts with rain, and even connecting islands via an earthquake. The citizens themselves also have conflicts between each other that you'll need to solve, and it often involves taking their offerings and bringing them to other settlements to solve problems like needing wool to keep warm, or needing wheat to feed themselves better than existing crops.
Helping out the citizens in these extra ways is usually optional, but it's very important because of how the action and sim segments compliments each other mechanically. The more points you earn in the action segments, the higher your maximum population in that area can be. Your player level is determined by how much total population the world has, and the higher your level, the higher your maximum HP. In addition, your followers can find MP scrolls, magic spells, and even extra lives to help you get through the action segments.
It may be an early SNES game, but the presentation and mechanics hold up really well. There aren't a ton of musical tracks, but what is there is really nice. While there may not be many animations, the player and enemy models are big and detailed. A really impressive bit of design for developers more or less pioneering on what then was such new hardware.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Both types of gameplay are quite simple, but that works really well for the pacing of the game. If either were more complicated, it would bog down the pacing and harm the overall experience. Both aspects may be too simple to be their own game in a satisfactory manner, but paired together like this they make for an all around very complimentary experience. It may be short, but it's well worth trying out if you like action platformers and simple strategy games ^w^