ActRaiser

Developer: Enix
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 1991
System: SNES
ESRB Rating: E10+
Official Web site

In a nutshell: Slash and build.

0:01 OK, I'm a god of some sort. "Now all types of monsters are in total control of the Earth." I fall asleep for FIVE MINUTES...
0:03 OK, so far I've figured out I can move my sky palace around over a bunch of deserted cities. Time to fight.
0:05 Apparently I'm not high enough level to fight in most cities. I guess and check until I find one I can actually battle in. "May luck be with you."
0:06 Remember when these rotation effects were the height of graphics technology? Ah, nostalgia.
0:08 Controls are decent. Gripes so far: Can't change direction in mid-air effectively, can't slash upward/downward.
0:09 Nice lightning effects from the boss centaur. Stands the test of time.
0:10 It's nice of the charging centaur to stop just before he tramples me. If he didn't, I'd be dead rather quickly.
0:11 My town has two tiny people now! Aww. They can't build homes because of bushes. I'm god, don't I have better things to do than clearing brush?
0:13 There are enemies attacking my angel/avatar as I try to build. SimCity would be so much better with this feature.
0:15 There, I cleared the freakin'; bushes. Now they can "work and be happy"
0:18 OK, so I've directed the people to build, now I'm sitting here waiting for something to happen...
0:20 I love the exclamation point after "Pause!" when you pause the game.
0:21 OH! I read the instructions and find I can fire arrows at the monsters. Once I do, the townspeople start building. Lazy bums. Do I have to do everything around here?
0:23 Now they can hunt. They seal a monster lair and find me some bow and arrows. Thanks, peons!
0:24 A bat just tried to carry off my people! Not on my watch!
0:26 There's a lot to keep track of. Killing pests, guiding development, razing land, all at the same time. Might be a bit much for turn-based sim fans.
0:27 Now I'm level 2, so I can move on to other cities, but I'd feel bad leaving my new citizens to fend for themselves. A god's work is never done.
0:32 The people want me to destroy a rock in the southeast, but I can't tell which one. Meanwhile, dragons are destroying my population. Crap!
0:33 Ah, finally found it. It was the smallish gray rock, not the huge red ones. Well why didn't you say so?
0:36 Final monster's lair is gone, but now some prophet guy has nightmares about "Minotaurus." You can't make these names up. Looks like time for a boss fight.
0:39 But first, a dungeon. I like being able to block projectiles with a sword swing.
0:40 Ooh, hidden passage. Interesting, classic level design. I keep dieing to an annoyingly swift skeleton knight.
0:42 Surprise, "Minotaurus" is a Minotaur. He comes flying in from the ceiling. Before I can figure out the pattern, I'm D-E-D dead. Time to try again.
0:44 Death from the skele-knight AGAIN. The difficulty's already ramping up a bit.
0:48 Die again at the minotaur boss. I can't seem to avoid the blue energy axes he throws. I'm at a loss.
0:50 A ha! The key seems to be jumping before the axes appear. I winz!
0:51 No more monsters, Fillmore is at peace. Some prophet died, blah blah. Cute little praisers at my temple. On to the not-ominously-named-at-all "Bloodpool"
0:53 Digging the Bloodpool music. Also, this action sequence is a lot tougher than the first ones. Falling platforms, etc.
0:54 I fall in to a bottomless pit DURING a boss battle. That's just not right.
0:57 Four times now I've died when the boss knocks me into a pit. GRRR!
0:59 Fifth time, I'm super careful to just avoid the pit. I still get knocked in with only one hit left to kill the boss! ARGH!
1:01 GOT HIM!

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes
Why? Perfect mix of action and sim. Neither section is transcendent, but both are decent enough to keep me going.

The review based on a copy purchased for the Wii's Virtual Console.