Actraiser Renaissance

I did not expect in the slightest to see a full-fledged remake of Actraiser come to fruition this year. I thought for sure we might first see it on the SNES library of Nintendo Switch Online, if anything. This was a huge and delightful surprise for me and I’ve enjoyed exploring every bit of Actraiser Renaissance’s reimagined take on one of my classic gaming loves. Yuzo Koshiro crushes it with both the classic and rearranged soundtrack, the gameplay is fun and a little bit improved in some cases, and the world is more enjoyable than ever to take in from the skies above and on the ground. I wish...

An unexpected remake of Actraiser has descended from the skies. Whether it can live up to the godhood of the original Super Nintendo release is certainly a concern.

An unexpected gift for fans of the SNES original and while the remake is seriously flawed in terms of both graphics and gameplay its sheer oddness is still highly compelling.

Back in 2019, when I reviewed a game called SolSeraph, I literally closed said review with the following statement:

See, again, that’s part of what makes this either work for people or not. This is a game that brushes up against a lot of different genres without diving too deeply into any of them, and some players are going to either clock out from that or find that they like one or two parts but not all three. It is kind of a weird game and it is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Square Enix as a video game publisher and developer have existed for over thirty-five years at this point. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest… they’re behind so many known and beloved franchises. Admittedly, I wasn’t alive at the time of the studio’s infancy or golden years. Naturally, there’s then going to be some titles I’ve missed in the studio’s long lifespan. SNES title Actraiser is one of those. When I first learnt of the title through the recent announcement of the remake Ac...

ActRaiser is a phenomenal game. One of the all-time greats that really experimented with mixing genres. One half of the game is an action platformer, where a knight, sent by The Lord Of Light (you), jumps and swings its sword through several stages, before facing a boss. Once that area is clear of monsters, the game switches to a city building sim, where a cherub keeps enemies at bay while humans build. Both sections of the game were very fun, and the story complimented the gameplay.