Front & Center

The Media Darling – Streets of Rage 2
In comparing SOR to its competition, Dave Halverson once wrote: “Although the Genesis displayed far fewer colors than the SNES (64 as opposed to 256), Rage looked better, and even though the SNES had a far superior sound chip, Streets of Rage sounded better . . . . Streets of Rage 2 took things a step further . . .” Yes, those are kind words and all, but is this one of the times to take Mr. Effulgent Hyperbole seriously?

Playing the game again a few hours ago, I found SOR 2 to be much better than Final Fight and, say, Turtles in Time - which uses the Konami brawler template (The Simpsons, the other Ninja Turtles games, X-Men) so heavily that it’s revolting that those games are actually respected. Structure and mechanics are extremely basic, and everything crawls at a Haggar-ish pace, but, using one Genesis strength to its advantage, there can be upwards of a dozen on-screen characters brawling their way out of a mess at any given point, and after executing a four-hit combo on six street urchins all at once, it’s hard not to find satisfaction in the game’s complete over-the-topness. The locations and colors are nothing that can’t be done on the SNES, and neither is the music better, but its style (and I think that’s what everyone seems to be in love with) has a brazen vivaciousness that is largely absent from any other 16-bit game.

 
The Critical Success – Beyond Oasis
At last, a return to a fantasy setting.

The introduction cinema is surprisingly lucid, and so is the animation of the large and detailed characters that populate the world (compared to its overrated contemporary, Donkey Kong Country). The music is much slower and self-reflective, unfortunately - meaning it’s not as slick or memorable as Yuzo Koshiro’s early fantasy synth-pop. However, Ancient’s sound-effect work had really matured and is leagues above its earlier efforts, with every step, movement, and attack all very crisp and clear.

Not really held back by any plot at all, Beyond Oasis saunters along quickly, employing an interesting weapon system: each one has a usage limit and is irreparable, so once it breaks, it’s time to find another one. Add in a decent combo system that lends itself to some flexible combat as you can never predict what you’ll have in your inventory. Tons of mini-games and an ingenious ongoing side-quest involving your spirits make every screen a potential mine for hidden areas.

 
The Black Sheep – The Legend of Oasis
Considering that most of Ancient’s games have slipped into semi-obscurity, and that they are all fairly consistent in terms of quality, picking the one game that gets bullied on by all the others is a bit difficult: it’s all relative, really. But I’m going to base this decision on my initial disappointment with The Legend of Oasis after purchasing it when it was first released years ago.

Opting for a more conventional style of action-RPG, the weapon-usage-limit was dropped (you now find permanent weapons occasionally), the combo system was limited in a serious fashion, and there are barely any mini games to speak of (I recall only two). After playing it again about a year back, I see that the spiritual and physical sides of the protagonist are much more balanced: whereas the spirits weren’t too useful in the original, they’re much stronger and more paramount in this sequel. Good job on that, Ancient, but with the rest of the elements excised, this Oasis game just seems so . . . middle of the road.

The score, the first of Koshiro’s I’ve heard using real instruments, is muted and scattered, swelling at moments of little to no action, leaving one wondering if the music is playing the same game you’re playing. You can call your less popular music an acquired taste all you want, Mr. Koshiro, but this definitely is not the crème de la crème.