The Immortal
A strange video game. I watched some longplays of this on YouTube recently. I was intrigued by the comments so I watched multiple versions: the Amiga, Genesis, and NES ones. Each has its own strengths. But first I should summarize the game.
It's kind of a puzzly game. You're a wizard in a dungeon, each level of which has a series of things you must do before you can proceed. These things are varied in how you do them and their difficulty. Some are pretty unintuitive. You get various spells and enough money to buy a few necessary items, but really, it's very linear. There's no real random element. The advantage is that many of the rooms are completely unique, or at least have unique elements. The downside is that all this creativity makes it a little short for its game type. It's like and unlike the old Sierra games.
The Amiga version has the best graphics, of course. The NES version allows you to always shoot fireballs, which soften up the enemies before the reach you, but in the other versions you get a limited number of fireballs on specific levels. The downside to the NES version is that there are these shadows that appear relentlessly, which are pretty annoying, especially given their speed and the isometric view. They appear in one room in the other versions, and can be walked past, but in the NES version, you must be constantly taking them out with your fireballs. Kind of annoying. The NES version has the best music, however, strangely.
The Genesis and NES versions have close up battles, where the Amiga one has you just fight where you stand. This changes up the enemy placement a little in the Amiga one. The Genesis version's claim to fame are its gory fatalities in the monster fights. The fights are kind of simple: you and your opponent have a health meter and a stamina meter. When your stamina drains, you slow down. The fights are kind of simple, but they go along with the principle of gaming I mentioned way back in the day of not making secondary gameplay difficult. The fights in the NES and Genesis ones illustrate this principle nicely. In the Genesis version you finish fights and get a random death animation for your enemy, beheading them, causing their head to explode, vaporizing them with electricity, splitting them down the middle, or petrifying them, for example. Once you leave the battle sequence, their bodies reflect their demise, which is a nice touch.
The story goes that you're a wizard off to find his missing master. You discover that someone has come in after him ahead of you -- someone he has been expecting -- for reasons unknown. The dungeon is populated with goblins and trolls, among other things. (The creepy spider area is missing on the NES version, which is also simplified in some other areas.) At the end of each level you sleep on a hay pile and dream.
Kind of an odd game, but enjoyable. Certainly unique.
It's kind of a puzzly game. You're a wizard in a dungeon, each level of which has a series of things you must do before you can proceed. These things are varied in how you do them and their difficulty. Some are pretty unintuitive. You get various spells and enough money to buy a few necessary items, but really, it's very linear. There's no real random element. The advantage is that many of the rooms are completely unique, or at least have unique elements. The downside is that all this creativity makes it a little short for its game type. It's like and unlike the old Sierra games.
The Amiga version has the best graphics, of course. The NES version allows you to always shoot fireballs, which soften up the enemies before the reach you, but in the other versions you get a limited number of fireballs on specific levels. The downside to the NES version is that there are these shadows that appear relentlessly, which are pretty annoying, especially given their speed and the isometric view. They appear in one room in the other versions, and can be walked past, but in the NES version, you must be constantly taking them out with your fireballs. Kind of annoying. The NES version has the best music, however, strangely.
The Genesis and NES versions have close up battles, where the Amiga one has you just fight where you stand. This changes up the enemy placement a little in the Amiga one. The Genesis version's claim to fame are its gory fatalities in the monster fights. The fights are kind of simple: you and your opponent have a health meter and a stamina meter. When your stamina drains, you slow down. The fights are kind of simple, but they go along with the principle of gaming I mentioned way back in the day of not making secondary gameplay difficult. The fights in the NES and Genesis ones illustrate this principle nicely. In the Genesis version you finish fights and get a random death animation for your enemy, beheading them, causing their head to explode, vaporizing them with electricity, splitting them down the middle, or petrifying them, for example. Once you leave the battle sequence, their bodies reflect their demise, which is a nice touch.
The story goes that you're a wizard off to find his missing master. You discover that someone has come in after him ahead of you -- someone he has been expecting -- for reasons unknown. The dungeon is populated with goblins and trolls, among other things. (The creepy spider area is missing on the NES version, which is also simplified in some other areas.) At the end of each level you sleep on a hay pile and dream.
Kind of an odd game, but enjoyable. Certainly unique.