| Game Information |
| Title: |
Alisia Dragoon |
|
| Year Released: |
1992 |
| Version Reviews: |
European |
| Genre: |
Action |
| Max Players: |
1 |
| Game Difficulty: |
Medium
|
| Difficulty Options: |
Yes
|
| Introduction |
| So, It's a platformer crossed with a shoot em up, with RPG elements. Strange-Yes, but it works perfectly. It was one of the first games to feature a Female lead character and a scantily-clad one at that, and received a frosty reception in Japan when it was first released. Thankfully though it received a much warmer reception in the rest of the world, earning high review scores from all the UK Sega mags. Strange then that this game is often overlooked.... |
| Gameplay |
| The aim of the game is the usual " Avenge parents death" storyline, but who cares when it's so much fun doing so. Unlike normal platformers, your weapon isn't something you have to throw or even aim for that matter. Just press your fire button and ZAP, out of Alisia's hand shoots a bolt of lightning which fires until either you let go of the fire button or your meter runs out (normally the latter, towards the end of the game). As long as you're facing the right direction your lightning bolt will auto-aim and take out any enemies within range.
Sounds easy? It's not!!! The amount of enemies coming at you from all directions is insane at some points in the game and since you can only fire in one direction at a time and at a certain height, it calls for some very quick maneuvering. Luckily, Alisia has four dragon like creatures at her beck and call, some of which are more useful than others, but no matter which creature you have at your side you'll be thankful for their help at some points in the game.
All the creatures, as well as Alisia herself can be powered up by collecting certain icons. It's definitely a good idea to spend a bit of time exploring the earlier levels and collecting all the power ups you can find as the differences between a levelled up creature and a standard power creature are HUGE. When you first start off the creatures are pretty much useless, but once they have powered up a few levels they become invaluable to your quest. |
| Graphics |
| The graphics are superb, not once have I seen a flicker cross the screen even with a multitude of enemies flying towards me. The characters are well drawn too, even if some of the enemies are very strange looking globs of slime. Backgrounds and level design are also really good, with the one and only fault I could find being that it's sometimes a little awkward to see enemy projectiles on the airship level. Sometimes the enemies blend into the scenery due to the colours of them and the background too but a sharp eye can spot them pretty easily. Plus, I like to think that is intentional to make the game even harder. |
| Sound & Music |
| Right, this is my one and only gripe with the game.
Don't get me wrong, the music isn't horribly composed or really high pitched or anything, I just don't like the tunes. I've never been a fan of RPG games and it just reminds me of that genre rather than a frantic, action packed, shooter/platformer.
Sound effects are pretty damn good though, I especially like the lightning sound effect, but again the background music ruins the great sound effects for me as they tend to blend into it quite a lot. |
| Controls |
| This game really benefits from the use of an Arcade Stick, the pad is OK but sometimes when you are surrounded by enemies it just doesn't cut it. Whichever device you use though the controls are very responsive. Buttons can be changed to fit around your play style too, with three major moves: Jump, Fire and Creature Select. The creature select option works well too, press whichever button you have chosen to be your Creature select button and the game pauses. Then you just cycle through the Creatures until you get to the one you would like to use and press it again. |
| Reply Value |
| It really depends on how much of a challenge you like. The main game can be completed within a couple of hours on the Normal difficulty setting, but put it on the Hard difficulty setting and everything changes. There's also loads of hidden rooms to find as well as hidden power ups that only appear when you zap your lightning in a certain place. Difficulty settings and finding hidden items all add to your overall rating, so if you want to be the best you'll have to play through a few times to find everything. |
| Final Scores |
| Gameplay: |
9 |
| Graphics: |
9 |
| Sound: |
7 |
| Controls: |
9 |
| Replay Value: |
8 |
| Conclusion |
| Absolute cracker of a game. This has jumped from 'never heard of it' to the Top Ten of my favourite MD games. I still haven't finished it on the Hard difficulty setting and I've been trying on and off for six weeks now. Normally I'd be getting annoyed or fed up of a game by now, but I'm not, I just keep on coming back for more. |
| Screenshots / Images |
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