"I Should Just Play Sim City Instead" An ActRaiser Review.

[Betamax001]

This is my first serious review for a video game. I posted it on my blog The Big Nothing. (http://lalanothing.blogspot.com) I figured since no one would read it there so I thought the good members of RacketBoy would!

The only reason I really bought Act Raiser was because when I bought Super Mario World for SNES, the cartridge was broken and so I had to find something else to buy instead for my new SNES. I remember hearing good things about Act Raiser and it was 5 bucks so I figured what the hey, let’s try it out!

For those not in the know about Act Raiser, Enix released the game in 1991 for the Super NES and You play as God-I mean “The Master” (Hooray for censorship! I mean, I thought the Master was evil!) and you have to kill monsters to make areas inhabitable for people to start a new civilization in an simulation type game like Sim City. After you clear the area of the monsters, a temple arises and then you proceed to guide an angel to guide the people of where to build roads and such. There are still some monsters left that spawn from a patch of land called a “monster lair” and try to stop the building of the city. As the angel you have to protect the fledging city from these demons by shooting them with your arrows. Eventually the people seal up the monster lairs and this gets rid of the threat. After building the city a problem will arise that makes God have to come down to fight a new evil threat to ensure safety for your followers.

The game play in Act Raiser is pretty simple. In the action stages, the D pad moves God around the stage, the B button makes him jump, the Y button swings his sword, and if you have a spell, you can use the X button to cast it. The action levels aren’t too terribly hard. Occasionally some parts you get stuck at or a boss battle is pretty difficult, but through trial and error you can get them down. I know I’ve had trouble at parts. If you are familiar at all with the Castlevania games on the NES, the action levels are pretty similar though not as hard.

While the action levels were fun, I liked the simulation parts the best. Maybe that’s just me. The aptly named sequel to ActRaiser, ActRaiser 2, jettisoned the simulation parts all together. All in all, ActRaiser was a really fun game and held up really quite well over time. If you still have a Super Nintendo in your closet you could do no better than to give than give ActRaiser a play through. But if you like the simulation parts (like me) maybe Sim City would be a better choice to play, though it still was a blast to play. Also this game is on the Wii’s virtual console so if for some reason you don’t have an SNES, then there is hope yet!

I give this game an 8.5 out of 10.

[KillemallCFH]

I just finished playing this game through for the first time and was actually planning on writing a review on it. I think the game was very interesting and had a lot of potential, but was ultimately just a mediocre sim game combined with a mediocre platformer. Granted, the strange mix of genres rendered it interesting enough to play through and enjoy, but I don't really envision myself running back to it any time soon. (Which leads me to another problem - the game was way too short.)

That being said, it did have some very nice music/sounds and great graphics, especially for such an early SNES game.

[crux]

As either an action platformer or a sim game, the game falters, but I think the combination of the two leads to something of a gestalt. I originally played the game around the time it was released, but even so many years later upon replaying I found the general premise enjoyable. It's certainly not deep, but I think it holds up very well and is very entertaining. Not to mention it was the first game in the unofficially linked series that would spawn Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma.

It is short, but the length ends up being something that makes the game just that more palpable. The premise would be tiring if it were much longer.

[fastbilly1]

You play as God-I mean “The Master” (Hooray for censorship! I mean, I thought the Master was evil!)

This is just where he was hiding after he was Tremas...

[J T]

It should also be noted that this game has a fantastic midi-symphonic soundtrack. All those synthesized trumpets, strings, and timpani drums may sound cheesy now, but at the time of its release, this stuff and the music to the Final Fantasy games were as close to a movie soundtrack as you could find in the gaming world. The majestic and dramatic music rooted in pseudo-Western-classical style added greatly to the overall theme of being a God.

Also, since this came out before 3D games were playable on home consoles, the use of the Mode 7 spinning zoom technique as you transitioned from the sim mode to the action mode was also very enthralling during its time.