Q: What is the Classic Game Review of the Week?
A: As many of you know, I do video game reviews in association with Orange Lounge Radio. Every week, DarkSakura picks a “classic game of the week” that she recommends her fellow gamers take out of their vaults and play. Well, DarkSakura and myself got to talking, and thought it would be fun if, in addition to my regular video game reviews, I added another review article: The Classic Game Review of the Week. While I won’t be reviewing the same games that DarkSakura chooses (she usually chooses her game on the same day as the show), it should prove to be a fun way to look back at some of the “classic” games we used to love.

Title: ActRaiser
Company: Quintet, Enix (Square Enix)
Platform(s): SNES, Wii Virtual Console
Rating: E for Everyone 10+
Original USA Release: November 1991

Rated as one of the greatest games of all time by GameSpot, ActRaiser is a game quite unlike any other of its time. ActRaiser combines elements from other popular games at the time such as city and building simulators such as Sim City and side-scrolling action games like Super Metroid. It’s a unique combination that had never been seen before.

The Master (controlled by the player) battles a being called Tanzra, the Evil One. After the battle, Master had retreated to the Sky Palace to sleep and regain his strength; meanwhile, Tanzra destroyed every civilization and has overrun the world with monsters.

The game begins hundreds of years later, when (after picking a name for him), Master is awakened by his faithful chubby cherub friend, the Angel. The Angel informs the Master of what has happened in his absence and explains that the Master can regain his strength and power by restoring the people’s faith in him; in order to do that, he must first go down to the surface and destroy the monster inhabitants.

The first experience we have in the game is the “Fight Monsters” aspect of the game. The Master descends down from the Sky Palace and inhabits a statue, which comes to life so that we can hack and slash the baddies. This is called “Act 1.”

The sound and graphics for the game are top of the line for the time the game was originally released. The game controls for the scrolling part of the game are fairly easy: you can move forward, backwards, jump, crouch down, and attack with your sword. Don’t be fooled by what sounds overly simplified; there are obstacles to move past and, often throughout the game, timing is key. The end of each level has a boss monster, something larger with more hit points than the other monsters in the level. They have special attacks that and prove to be a tougher challenge with every new level. Once the boss monster in Act 1 is defeated, the people can begin to build and grow.

Now that Master has defeated the monsters, he can help guide the people of the land to learn and grow. Our diaper-clad cherub friend, Angel, will do Master’s bidding and help protect the people. The first area we free of monsters as the Master is Fillmore (or FILLMORE–this game has a penchant for names in all-caps, like many of the games that came out around this time). The people of Fillmore will speak to us, asking Master for help, offering gifts, and other things.

Angel has the use of a bow and arrow to kill monsters from various monster lairs (in the case of Fillmore, there are four lairs total) to protect the people as they build up their civilization. As you build, they’ll learn different skills–the first being how to seal monster layers. Directing the people to build on top of a lair will seal the layer and the monsters within.

The people may also ask for other types of help, such as destroying brush or putting out fires. Master has a set of six miracles that he can perform while observing the people: Lightning lets him destroy things like brush and rocks; rain helps crops grow, nourishes dry fields, and puts out fires; sunshine dries up marshlands to the people can build over them; wind blows away flying creatures (helpful for when you’re overwhelmed with monsters from lairs), and earthquakes, as one might suspect, cause general destruction and havoc–this can be a good thing, however. For example, if an area reaches its peak civilization level, you can use earthquakes to destroy old buildings and the townspeople will rebuild them with the highest tech level; newer houses can hold more people, and that’s a good thing.

After all of the monster lairs have been sealed by the townspeople, a final monster lair will appear–one filled with montsters that only the Master can defeat. Heading back to the Sky Palace, once again choose to “Fight Monsters” and Act 2 will begin. Remember a few paragraphs ago when I said not to be fooled by the simplicity of the side-scrolling portion of the game’s controls? Act 1 of Fillmore was relatively easy, but Act 2 is increasingly difficult, not to mention longer. All those jumping and timing skills will come in handy for getting to the final boss.

Once Act 2 is finished, the townspeople will thank you and urge you to go on to other areas and rid them of all monsters the way you have Fillmore. You can stay in Fillmore if you like, directing the townspeople to build up more areas; the maximum population in Fillmore is 906 at this point and, as previously stated, the bigger the population, the better.

The rest of the game proceeds in a similar fashion, with increasingly difficult Acts for each town and more monster lairs and different problems to help the townsfolk with.

Once all six areas are completely rid of monsters, it’s time for the epic showdown with the Master’s immortal enemy, Tanzra. First, Master must once again defeat all six of the Act 2 boss monsters. After that, the time to battle Tanzra arrives. The Evil One is no walk through the park, and has two forms; his first form, like the other bosses, has 24 HP. His second form has a whopping 40 HP. Once you have finally defeated Tanzra, the game is beat.

The ending shows the Angel and Master heading to a temple to listen to the people, only to find that no one is there worshipping. Angel suggests that now that the world has been rid of monsters and civilization has grown and flourished, people can now take care of themselves instead of relying on a higher power. The time has come to return to the Sky Palace and leave the world to grow on its own.

ActRaiser is definitely one of my all-time favorite games. The graphics are great for the very early 90s, and the music is still well-done and pleasant to listen to. The Acts in each town are challenging, as is building up your civilizations to help them achieve their maximum potential. ActRaiser combines the action of a side-scrolling hack-and-slash game and the challenge of a civilization simulation game. It’s most certainly the best of both worlds, and provides hours of challenge and entertainment.

This week’s Classic Game of the Week, ActRaiser, gets a 10/10 from me. That’s it for now; see you next time!