Young female villager sacrificed to bring Actraiser to virtual console

The first of Enix's old SNES games has hit the virtual console and hopefully everyone can find time between playing Shrek the Third and Legend of Dragoon on their Wii to give this a shot. When I was around 7 and bought my Super Nintendo, the games I got with it were Super Mario World, F-Zero and Actraiser. I knew little about Actraiser other than Nintendo Power seemed head over heels for it, but I was hoping for something like Castlevania. That was not what I got.

At first things went smoothly enough; you enter your name and see some great mode 7 effects before a beautiful 2D action scene with impressive music and giant sprites. Then, as soon as you defeat the boss, it all changed. I was now in control of flying nude baby, complete with a bow and arrow that felt almost entirely useless against bats that seemed to never stop spawning. Villagers told me they needed more crops and roads, and my young heart was broken at the thought of what the rest of the game would be like. I was really hoping for more stabbing and less talking.

I reluctantly played on, hoping to convince myself what I was doing was fun and that it wouldn't be a painful wait until my birthday when I got another game. I did encounter more action scenes. They were fun, but eventually I started enjoying the town building more than anything else in the game. The story of the villagers was became pretty intense for me and I ended up crying when I was told a young girl had to be sacrificed to save the village.

The game holds up well through the years and is a great example of how adventurous Enix used to be. Buy it!