Actraiser Renaissance
One of my favorite games to play on the SNES was Actraiser. It had unique genre-blending gameplay that was a blast to play.
Fast forward to 2021. Out of absolute left field a remake is announced and drops day zero! Shut up and take my money! I purchased it as soon as it dropped. I didn’t get to it until half way through my Disney World trip, because I’m addicted to gaming and nothing will stop me.
I remember being able to beat the original in under 10 hours. This time around it’s way more fleshed out and it took me about 30 hours. It didn’t feel needlessly fleshed out, but at times I was getting eager for the timer to flip so my little humans would build stuff, or my fields/workshops would produce things I needed. The game seems a little easier, but there are difficulty levels you can adjust to fit your needs.
Let’s talk about the complete visual and audio overhaul. I absolutely loved the redone OST. It was brilliant. The visuals kept a retro feeling while bringing it to the HD era. I think there was a good balance between respecting the source content and making it feel pretty enough to not be scoffed at. I loved watching the little sprites of the people going about their lives. You could often see someone petting a dog outside their house.
The city building element, in true Quartet fashion not wanting to rest on their laurels, added another genre into the mix. Now we have these tower defense segments that add a lot of fun to the mix. We also get the introduction of unique characters that act as heroes of each realm. I thought most of them were really well done and added another aspect to this remake. There is also a post-game area, for those who want even more!
So after all this gushing you may be asking, why only a 7/10? Well it met all my expectations and then some, but overall it was an average experience compared to what you expect in a modern game. It lacked things that would have made this more bearable, such as a fast forward option. When compared to modern platformers like Ori, and modern city building like Cities, it falls short. It’s like the Red Mage in the original Final Fantasy game. It’s a jack of all trades, but master of none. Leaving a pleasurable, but average experience.
I think this was a fantastic remake, and felt more like Actraiser 3 than Actraiser 1 after all the inclusions of new content. I paid full price for it, $30 on the Switch, and felt I got my money’s worth. I will definitely support more remakes from Quartet in the future!
