Tales of Monkey Island and #28:Actraiser

So, I just finished Tales of Monkey Island and noticed something kind of interesting and wanted to briefly talk about it. Basically, in the 4th and 5th episode, the game has some slight parallels with the gospel. The obvious one is the "Judas" role that Morgan LeFlay has. She betrays the hero and is paid with exactly 30,000 pieces of silver. However there are some other slight parallels as well. Guybrush Threepwood is a savior figure, who frees the world of the pox before dying to LeChuck. He then has to conquer death to set things right and is finally resurrected at the end of the whole ordeal. I would love to read more into this but I shouldn't since I think most of this is sort of incidental. The 30,000 pieces of silver is the only direct reference and I'm pretty sure the makers weren't thinking "Hey, lets take the story of Christ and retell it with voodoo and pirates. Yeah that will be awesome." So, I won't go about it, though I'm sure others will. As for the game (or games since it was episodic), it started out slow but by the third episode, it picked up and became a solid series. Not as good as the other Telltale Games I've played but definitely worth my money. And now, for more games I like:

28. Actraiser

Once upon a time, I heard about a game called Actraiser several times. When it appeared on the Virtual Console on the Wii I decided to buy it and try it out. What I came across was one of the more original and better games I've ever played.

The game puts you in the shoes of God (or the Master in this case) on his quest to reconquer his creation from the clutches of Satan (or...actually I forget what they called Satan in this game...). The game takes place in two modes. The first mode is a Castlevania-esque sidescroller that has you play as a statue the Master posses. The first time you enter this mode, its to free an area of land from the clutches of evil. After you've defeated the boss, a temple will be built and a priest and priestess will appear. From there you enter the next mode which plays sort of like civilization. You take the control of your Cherub, with whom you can guide how the village builds itself up, defeat monsters who are trying to terrorize the area, and cast some spells that cause natural disasters and stuff. Your villagers will occasionally seal up evil layers if you guide them to them. Eventually, you'll descend again and posses a statue again to free the land from evil once more. Once you finish with that area you move onto the next one until you finally reach your confrontation with Satan himself.

The game plays pretty well and both modes within the game feel as if they belong there. I'm actually surprised more games haven't tried to do something similar to this game since it really stands out because of it. The music is also amazing and gives you a feel for the sheer epic nature of this game. The game, though, does have its flaws. It was made early in the SNES lifespan, so its not particularly impressive graphics wise. Its controls also leave something to be desired though mostly its because of the lack of a double jump function. The game is rather forgiving in the sense that you have infinite continues...

All in all this is a good game that no one should pass up if they have a Wii.