Virtual Console Roundup
DKC2, Mario & Yoshi, and eight more - including Zelda and Lylat Wars.
ActRaiser
- Platform: SNES
- Wii Points: 800
Justifiably remembered as one of the strangest games ever to grace a home format, ActRaiser is an endearingly awkward genre mish-mash in which you play as God himself. OK, Nintendo's "no controversy" policy meant that a few names got changed so the protagonists were no longer God and Satan, but it's hard to disguise the theological strangeness of a game in which the Almighty travels to Earth to smite centaurs, monkeys and wasps with his gigantic sword, before a helpful cherub hovers over tiny towns and cities, shooting down monsters with a bow and arrow.
It's utterly bizarre, both in concept and execution, veering between hack and slash platforming, Populous-style strategy and religious simulation with an audacity that could only come from Japan. This means it's also a rather lumpy gaming experience, with the platforming stages marred by stiff control, while the broader strategic elements are hampered by the need to constantly shoot monsters (keeping your followers safe and building up your Holy power) while navigating a rather opaque menu system.
For those with the willpower needed to penetrate the fog of weird that surrounds the game, it soon reveals itself as a surprisingly compelling and one that rewards your perseverance with a commendably complex story that also acts as an allegorical meditation on the nature of faith in a secular world. Oh yeah.
7/10
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Platform: SNES
- Wii Points: 800
Never playing A Link to the Past is like never listening to Sergeant Pepper, or never seeing Star Wars. It's just one of those things that you simply have to do if you're serious about gaming, both as entertainment and as a creative medium.
While the later 3D outings would bring greater depth and nuance to Link's journeys in Hyrule, there's still nothing that crystallises the appeal of the top-down quest genre like the bright, colourful and utterly immersive sprawl of forests, caves, dungeons and castles laid out before you here. ChronoTrigger may have delivered a grander story, but there's beauty in Zelda's simplicity and it's an attraction that has withstood the march of time with consummate ease - this is still superlative game design, on every level.
Looking back at it now, it's almost groaning with cliché, but that's just because every RPG adventure since has stolen from it so blatantly. If you are one of those poor souls to have never tasted the sweetest SNES fruit then don't be fooled into thinking this is a generic dungeon grind. This is the game that defined the genre, and for just 800 points there's no excuse not to grab this piece of history.
9/10