ActRaiser

The Good
A game of two havles? Actraiser was one of those games which made you delighted to own a Super Famicom (if you were lucky enough to own one on import). It's a God Sim, it's a side scrolling platformer/slash 'em up. To be fair, looking at it now, it has it's attractions but the two parts don't now, in the cold light of day, gel that well. The best part of the game? The platform sections are by far the more interesting part of the game and even now they are still very good (if somewhat unresponsive when compared to, say, Castlevania: SOTN but it does still make you smile stupidly with it's action.

But, for me, the boss battles on their own (when the game was completed) was one of the highest points. The highest though has to go to the soundtrack. Yuzo Koshiro absolutely excelled himself with this. It is fantastic. Completely bombastic and over the top but it works wonderfully. One of the best game soundtracks of all time and well worth a hunt down on MP3.

The Bad
Th God Sim part. Ignore rose tinted spectacles it's pants.

The Bottom Line
A mish mash that worked well 13 years ago but not now. The game still has a lot of good things going for it but the God Sim section is very poor now. The slashing bits are well worth sticking with as these can still be great fun.

May sound daft, but pick it up for the music.