Who hasn’t thought about being a God? I know I have… man to have all that power and do as you wish whenever you wish to. Quite a site isn’t it? Truly in the real world, that’s just beyond us, but in the world of video games, anything is possible, and guess what? ActRaiser gives you that power!
In 1990 Quintet and Enix published and developed a side-scrolling-platforming action game called “ActRaiser” for Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Until this time there was no other game with a similar overview of gaming, one might say it was unique at that time.
ActRaiser forms from the premise that you, the player, are none other than God himself, “Master” if you will, as you are called during gameplay, Tanzra, referred to as "The Evil One", is the eternal enemy of “The Master” who as many other stories just wants to conquer the world. Aside from just being a God, to make it even more “master/godly-essential”, you get to hear people praying to you and you get to perform miracles. Since not everything can be laughs and smiles, the twist of the game relies on the earth’s dominion by “The Evil One”. The story unveils by Tanzra’s six Guardians attacking The Master in a battle that lasted several days. After a grueling battle, The Master retreated to his Sky Palace (a floating cloud) and recover from the battle injuries, which led to him being led to a long and deep sleep. During this time, Tanzra divided the world into six lands, each ruled by one of his guardians. The tale begins with your awakening from a sleep of thousands of years, only to find that the land below has been taken over by evil forces (not the most interesting of stories, I know lol). So now you’re surveying the continents from your floating palace in the sky and you'll have to locate scattered sources of monster infestation and descend from your sky palace and inhabit the body of an ancient gray statue which turns into a human sword-fighter character, entering into side-scrolling action/platformer stages to take up your sword against the legions of “The Evil One”.
ActRaiser's gameplay sequences, from the weapon-wielding, to the traditional platform-jumping sequences are pretty classic straightforward. You run, leap and slash your way through forests, caves, deserts, ice-mountains and castles filled with enemies and non-stop action. Going throughout the game stages you appeal and encounter yourself picking up diverse power ups contained in strange statues which can vary their contents, like apples to refill your life meter and 1-ups to increase your stock of lives, as well as other bonuses which can let your empower your sword or fire projectiles.
As you progress through each individual stage and finally reach the end of each one, you will find yourself battling a powerful boss monster, and as each stage goes by, each boss gets tougher to beat as well, though to get extra help, by gaining more followers, you get your life bar extended as well as get access to magical spells which can generally kill normal monsters quickly or deal large amounts of damage to boss monsters. The defeat of the end-boss opens up a new section of the overhead-view world. Death Heim is the final side action sequence the player completes. It contains no side scrolling levels, only a sequence of boss battles. You fight in turn each of the six guardians and then finally battles the demon Tanzra (who has two forms).
The overhead-view (simulation mode as I like to call it) mode involves protecting and guiding your new civilization towards prosperity. The first two humans in each population are sent to the Earth by the Master and enter the temple, an ancient structure which acts as the central hub of the civilization. This portion of the game play requires the player to take actions that encourage the growth of the population, such as instructing the people where to build roads, houses and farmland. The Master controls his servant, a cupid like creature with a halo, small wings, and a bow and arrow. Additionally the Master has access to miraculous powers such as the ability to summon lightning, rain, sunlight or earthquakes. The Master uses these miracles to clear obstacles such as rocks and snow, kill monsters, or assist the people in various ways (such as summoning wind to power windmills). While the Master watches over the people they expand the civilization by building homes (which range from tents to large houses) and special buildings (such as farms or windmills).
One obstacle in the simulation mode is the presence of flying monsters which attempt to impede the progression of a civilization. For example, Blue Dragons destroy homes, Red Demons destroy dry crops, and Skull Heads create earthquakes, though this might seem frustrating, it gives the game the added twist on things. The Master’s servant is used to battle these creatures with his bow and arrow and of course he can take damage when coming in contact with them. The obnoxious creatures spawn themselves through lairs spread around the land. If the servant loses hit points you won’t lose the game, rather leaves you unable to use the bow and giving the creatures free shots to attack the people. So don’t sweat it, since the main temple cannot be destroyed and the master cannot die, it is impossible to lose during simulation mode as well as the population of the civilization can not drop below two. Each time the population increases the Master recovers some amount of life, allowing him to continue fighting the monsters even if it was previously reduced to zero. As the population expands the lairs are sealed preventing the creatures to cause any more chaos, if you are able to accomplish this, the civilization level of the region is considerably increased, allowing more advanced structures to be built and increasing the potential population. Once all the lairs have been sealed the population will begin to build the most advanced homes available to the people in that region. These homes house the highest population per building, and are unique in being the only homes resistant to earthquakes. Population growth increases the number of followers you have, allowing you to progress in the game and increase your power in hit points; you also gain more SP which you can use to perform miracles in and help out the civilization. The people can and will provide you with offerings that give new magical powers or increase your attributes such as maximum health. At a certain point in the development of a civilization, a catastrophe of some kind threatens the people, such as the activation of a dormant volcano spewing lava and rocks over the land. You are asked to deal with this catastrophe and leads you to enter a second side-scrolling action level to fight through more monsters and defeat another end-boss.
As the game advances you may need to give technology or special items to a civilization that were originally offered by the people in another region. For instance, one civilization may provide instructions on how to build bridges or grow wheat, which can be used to benefit other civilizations. Without these special gifts being shared by the people of various regions, most civilizations will not be able to reach their maximum population levels.
After the Master has completed two action stages in each region he may enter the final level. This is another action level where the Master revisits several of the games boss battles before fighting the final boss. The Master's best option is to advance each civilization to its maximum population, and accept all offering from each one before entering this final stage. ActRaiser's 13 platforming stages let you live by the sword, bringing not peace, but destruction to the forces of The Evil One and saving you from growing restless. You'll never feel like there's too much action or too much simulation, the unique category clash of side-scrolling and simulation keeps things fresh for hours, giving you a break from each style of design by bouncing back into the other.
The whole package comes together as a fine experience that’ll bring you back over the years. With alternating forms of gameplay - each solid in their own right - it’ll be hard to put this game down. So if you have a Wii, download it, if you have a SNES buy it (rent it, whatever), if not just emulate it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
Until next time, good gaming! (next week X-Box 360 vs Playstation 3)
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In 1990 Quintet and Enix published and developed a side-scrolling-platforming action game called “ActRaiser” for Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Until this time there was no other game with a similar overview of gaming, one might say it was unique at that time.
ActRaiser forms from the premise that you, the player, are none other than God himself, “Master” if you will, as you are called during gameplay, Tanzra, referred to as "The Evil One", is the eternal enemy of “The Master” who as many other stories just wants to conquer the world. Aside from just being a God, to make it even more “master/godly-essential”, you get to hear people praying to you and you get to perform miracles. Since not everything can be laughs and smiles, the twist of the game relies on the earth’s dominion by “The Evil One”. The story unveils by Tanzra’s six Guardians attacking The Master in a battle that lasted several days. After a grueling battle, The Master retreated to his Sky Palace (a floating cloud) and recover from the battle injuries, which led to him being led to a long and deep sleep. During this time, Tanzra divided the world into six lands, each ruled by one of his guardians. The tale begins with your awakening from a sleep of thousands of years, only to find that the land below has been taken over by evil forces (not the most interesting of stories, I know lol). So now you’re surveying the continents from your floating palace in the sky and you'll have to locate scattered sources of monster infestation and descend from your sky palace and inhabit the body of an ancient gray statue which turns into a human sword-fighter character, entering into side-scrolling action/platformer stages to take up your sword against the legions of “The Evil One”.
ActRaiser's gameplay sequences, from the weapon-wielding, to the traditional platform-jumping sequences are pretty classic straightforward. You run, leap and slash your way through forests, caves, deserts, ice-mountains and castles filled with enemies and non-stop action. Going throughout the game stages you appeal and encounter yourself picking up diverse power ups contained in strange statues which can vary their contents, like apples to refill your life meter and 1-ups to increase your stock of lives, as well as other bonuses which can let your empower your sword or fire projectiles.
As you progress through each individual stage and finally reach the end of each one, you will find yourself battling a powerful boss monster, and as each stage goes by, each boss gets tougher to beat as well, though to get extra help, by gaining more followers, you get your life bar extended as well as get access to magical spells which can generally kill normal monsters quickly or deal large amounts of damage to boss monsters. The defeat of the end-boss opens up a new section of the overhead-view world. Death Heim is the final side action sequence the player completes. It contains no side scrolling levels, only a sequence of boss battles. You fight in turn each of the six guardians and then finally battles the demon Tanzra (who has two forms).
The overhead-view (simulation mode as I like to call it) mode involves protecting and guiding your new civilization towards prosperity. The first two humans in each population are sent to the Earth by the Master and enter the temple, an ancient structure which acts as the central hub of the civilization. This portion of the game play requires the player to take actions that encourage the growth of the population, such as instructing the people where to build roads, houses and farmland. The Master controls his servant, a cupid like creature with a halo, small wings, and a bow and arrow. Additionally the Master has access to miraculous powers such as the ability to summon lightning, rain, sunlight or earthquakes. The Master uses these miracles to clear obstacles such as rocks and snow, kill monsters, or assist the people in various ways (such as summoning wind to power windmills). While the Master watches over the people they expand the civilization by building homes (which range from tents to large houses) and special buildings (such as farms or windmills).
One obstacle in the simulation mode is the presence of flying monsters which attempt to impede the progression of a civilization. For example, Blue Dragons destroy homes, Red Demons destroy dry crops, and Skull Heads create earthquakes, though this might seem frustrating, it gives the game the added twist on things. The Master’s servant is used to battle these creatures with his bow and arrow and of course he can take damage when coming in contact with them. The obnoxious creatures spawn themselves through lairs spread around the land. If the servant loses hit points you won’t lose the game, rather leaves you unable to use the bow and giving the creatures free shots to attack the people. So don’t sweat it, since the main temple cannot be destroyed and the master cannot die, it is impossible to lose during simulation mode as well as the population of the civilization can not drop below two. Each time the population increases the Master recovers some amount of life, allowing him to continue fighting the monsters even if it was previously reduced to zero. As the population expands the lairs are sealed preventing the creatures to cause any more chaos, if you are able to accomplish this, the civilization level of the region is considerably increased, allowing more advanced structures to be built and increasing the potential population. Once all the lairs have been sealed the population will begin to build the most advanced homes available to the people in that region. These homes house the highest population per building, and are unique in being the only homes resistant to earthquakes. Population growth increases the number of followers you have, allowing you to progress in the game and increase your power in hit points; you also gain more SP which you can use to perform miracles in and help out the civilization. The people can and will provide you with offerings that give new magical powers or increase your attributes such as maximum health. At a certain point in the development of a civilization, a catastrophe of some kind threatens the people, such as the activation of a dormant volcano spewing lava and rocks over the land. You are asked to deal with this catastrophe and leads you to enter a second side-scrolling action level to fight through more monsters and defeat another end-boss.
As the game advances you may need to give technology or special items to a civilization that were originally offered by the people in another region. For instance, one civilization may provide instructions on how to build bridges or grow wheat, which can be used to benefit other civilizations. Without these special gifts being shared by the people of various regions, most civilizations will not be able to reach their maximum population levels.
After the Master has completed two action stages in each region he may enter the final level. This is another action level where the Master revisits several of the games boss battles before fighting the final boss. The Master's best option is to advance each civilization to its maximum population, and accept all offering from each one before entering this final stage. ActRaiser's 13 platforming stages let you live by the sword, bringing not peace, but destruction to the forces of The Evil One and saving you from growing restless. You'll never feel like there's too much action or too much simulation, the unique category clash of side-scrolling and simulation keeps things fresh for hours, giving you a break from each style of design by bouncing back into the other.
The whole package comes together as a fine experience that’ll bring you back over the years. With alternating forms of gameplay - each solid in their own right - it’ll be hard to put this game down. So if you have a Wii, download it, if you have a SNES buy it (rent it, whatever), if not just emulate it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
Until next time, good gaming! (next week X-Box 360 vs Playstation 3)
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