ActRaiser
by Joseph on Mar.12, 2004, under Games
When the GameStop near my house announced that they were no longer accepting SNES games for trade-in, I made the natural assumption that they would no longer be selling them, either. I figured, then, that it would be a good time to stock up. Despite intending to buy more, I ended up with only three new games. ActRaiser quickly became my favorite of the three.
And how could it not? I mean, I play God! The power of the elements is at my fingertips (provided I have enough SP)! I command a mighty warrior with the strength of at least two or three really strong guys! And my holy messenger appears to be a cutesy cherub! Maybe I’m not painting the best word-picture here. Let’s rewind.
The main part of the game plays like an arcade version of Sim City. This isn’t some kick-back-and-watch sim game, oh no! Let your guard down and giant bats will kidnap your citizens, or blow their houses up! With people still inside, no less! You must send your cherub after the monsters with his mighty Arrows of Justice in order to rescue them. Thankfully, and very much unlike Sim City, the people are very self-sufficient once monsters are no longer murdering them. They invent bridges, windmills, and even music, which as God, makes me very proud.
The side-scrolling fighting levels, or Acts, aren’t as good as the sim portions, but are about what I’d expect from a first generation SNES game from a third party. They knew they had a lot more to work with than the NES, but didn’t quite know what to do with it all yet. Apparently there is a mode that will allow you to play all of the Acts in a row without the sim portions, but that seems like an incredible waste to me.
Lastly, graphics. Two words: Mode 7. Okay, that was a word and a number. Bear with me. It’s great being able to fly around the world, zooming in and out, in my giant flying castle. They could have easily just made a little menu or a static map to choose your location, but even ten years later, the overworld map impresses me– doubly so when I discovered that any changes made in the cities actually show up on the map! Here’s to Enix!
