The Video Game Critic

This is a great idea for a thread.  One thoughtful recommendation a week. 

Alundra (PS1)

This game plays very similarly to Zelda, but it is much more than a Zelda clone.  Its got a cool story, great dark atmosphere, and one sweet concept: enter into people's dreams and conquer their nightmares.

What I really appreciate about this game though is it is tough!  Unlike in Zelda, the puzzles actually push you in this game and it is very satisfying to solve them.  The action also becomes very intense as the game progresses and will test your resolve.  The gameplay and story were more than engaging enough to keep me going, and I rank finishing this game as one of my most rewarding video game experiences.  Call me crazy, but I do prefer this game to A Link to the Past.

For a more in depth and critical review go here:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps/rpg/alundra/player_review.html?id=361294

Late post this week but I just about made it .  My choice this week:

Comix Zone - MegaDrive.

One of the last MegaDrive games that got excellent reviews but was kind of overlooked due to the onset of 32bit gaming.  This game is without doubt one of the best looking and sounding titles on the system.  It has a great rock soundtrack that isn't really something I ever recall hearing on any other MegaDrive titles.  When I bought the game I got a 6 track CD with it which I still listen to to this day.  The game has incredibly detailed backgrounds and great animation with tons of diverse enemies with large sprites and lots of frames of animation.  The use of the comic book strip motif works really well in turning this scrolling beat em up into something that feels very fresh.  The great intro sequence and game world design give the game a real sense of polish (and the first time you see the bad guy draw an enemy on screen you begin to realise how underused the MegaDrive was for most its live).

The game is hard certainly and bouts typically involve only one or two enemies and require a much higher degree of strategy to take down than your standard game in this genre.  It only has six levels but the difficulty, combined with the multiple routes and the hidden items which your pet rat can find by scratching away at the paper mean that over time you begin to work out route strategies through the game which make it very replayable. 

This really does offer some of the best graphics, sound, gameplay and originality on the system.  Here's hoping the Wii release will see more people experiencing it (come on next gen sequel *crosses fingers*).