That's What She SNES!

Title: ActRaiser

Developer: Quintet

Publisher: Enix America, Inc.

NA Release Date: November, 1991

Alright, straight off. That’s What She Wants.

A mixture of a platformer and top down city planning god overlord game that is notoriously fun. This was a game that I rented from the local Blockbuster (when they still existed), and beat in one night.

You are known as ‘The Master’ to the people and the evil guy is Tanzra. So you were defeated by Tanzra and six of his friends and you left for your sky castle to sleep it off. Tanzra split the world up into six pieces; one for each of his friends.

Now you’ve come back and are ready to take over.

In the top down city building view, you fly around in this skycastle. Inside your castle, you can choose different options such as magic you want to take down with you to the platforming stages. At this point you don’t have any magic, and you don’t have any cities that are faithful to you so all you can do is choose to go down and fight.

The screen spins around Mode 7 style until you go into the platforming stage.

The first stage is called Fillmore. You aren’t high enough level yet to visit any of the other stages. On each of these worlds, there exist these statues your sky master ‘presence’ inhabits and animates and then you go hack n slash platforming.

The first time you visit every world, you must first defeat the boss before you are allowed to go down and direct the people. None of the bosses you face will be terribly hard. You might die a few times to figure out their pattern and then you’ll pretty much be unscathed provided you still got some reflexes left in your old age.

In the city-building-directing phase, you take the form of an angel that can shoot arrows. You’ll find enemies spawn out of these portal like things on the ground. You don’t build any of the buildings directly a la SimCity, but you can select an area where you want your people to build towards. You want to build towards a portal and your people will seal it.

You also have magic you can use. One of the magicks you’ll probably be using most is lighting. It can destroy trees and allow your people to build out more. The sun can dry up marshy bits, and earthquake can alter the landscape (but it will also knock down your village if they haven’t built earthquake proof shelters).

You keep building and your villages will find artifacts that can give you more MP, or allow some villages to have boats. In each city once you’ve been building for a bit, your villagers will tell you there is castle or a cave or something that has another boss in it that you must dive into the platforming stage to do. Once you defeat this boss that world will be completely free.

What a game! I started playing and just couldn’t put it down again. So I finished the game. I guess the downside to this game is that, it is short, and it is terribly easy. Anyways I leave you with some screenshots!

Control/Gameplay: Gameplay straight off is amazing. It’s such a good mixture. When you tire of the action, you can just hop in your sky palace and fly somewhere else. Build a city and then hop back in the action and slash your way through. The controls could use a little tweaking however. They’re not the most responsive controls. They’re fine in the city building phase but when you’re in the action sequence and you hit the attack button there is a little bit of a noticeable lag, resulting in me getting hit more often than I would like.

Sound: Yuzo Koshiro composed the music to this game and according to one of my old Nintendo Power magazines, I believe it said that he was one of the most famed composers of the era. I mostly remember his music from the Streets of Rage series.

Graphics: Look at any of the screenshots above. During the action sequences the backgrounds are incredibly detailed. The top down city building view isn’t as detailed, but at least you can see the little guys running around destroying the caves! The bosses are very big and detailed as well. Mode 7 is seen throughout the game. You’ll see it when you’re zooming down from your sky palace into one of your cities, and in some of the backgrounds during action sequences. The enemies and the player don’t move the most fluidly, but it’s rather easy to overlook.

Fun: While the game and concept seem rather simple, it is tons of fun. The first time I played it, I went all the way through without stopping. This time I did it again.

Coop: None :(

Overall Presentation: A completely amazing game. Really I think the only fault that detracts from it is that it is short and extremely easy. Sure some of the bosses will give you a little bit of trouble, but you’ll figure out any of their patterns rather easily. Play this and you will not be disappointed! That’s What She Wants!

-TWSS!