All About...
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The classic NES game makes a triumphant transition to Game Boy Color. |
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| The game's hero will encounter many townsfolk during his adventures. |
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Originally for the NES, Crystalis sunk players into a world filled with monsters, mayhem and magical swords. It quickly became a hit with the masses, and with its transition to Game Boy Color, it promises to attract even more legions of fans. The graphic enhancements, vastly improved translation of the dialog and gameplay that's still fun make this a must-have Game Boy game, even for those who already played and finished the game so many years ago.
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The game starts with players getting a full introduction to the world (something that wasn't in the first game). Still images, with minor animation, describe the fall of the technological world and the rise of magic in the land. Dragonia, a powerful wizard, discovered the uses of technology and proceeded to attempt world domination. Four wizards attempted to stop him by creating four magic swords based on the four elements (wind, fire, water and thunder) that, combined, would form the magical sword of Crystalis. Of course, Dragonia discovered their plot, stripped them of most of their powers and scattered the four swords throughout the land. However, a prophecy foretells of two powerful wizards, asleep from the time of the Great War, that would rise to fight the evils of technology if they ever threatened the land. Players take on the role of one of the newly awakened wizards and begin the journey to find the swords and defeat Dragonia.
Nintendo Software Technology (NST) worked closely with the original creators of the game, SNK, to keep the translation true to the original intent. Also, SNK admitted to not being able to do certain things because of time constraints, which NST was able to add. The clarity of the plot, especially at the end of the game, has been refined so things make much more sense now. The cleaned-up dialog actually reads like an American game, which makes it far more enjoyable.
The game itself plays very much like a Zelda game. Players run around a huge world using swords and magic spells on a variety of creatures. As in Zelda, players will find all sorts of items that will help them on the quest, but where the game really shines is in the magic spells. There are many to choose from, and when they're upgraded, new abilities are unlocked.
There are a ton of environments to explore, and the graphic improvements to the game make them look even better on the handheld than they did on the television set. The game does run into a few problems, though -- mostly in the department of sound. The game contains some digitized voice, which sounds more like an angry bee than spoken dialog. The music hasn't been improved much, and the sound effects are lacking, so most players will likely just turn the sound down.
Bottom Line: It might just be a port of an older game, but it proves that even older games can stand the test of time.
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Michael Wolf
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"The game contains some digitized voice, which sounds more like an angry bee than spoken dialog." |
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Just like Zelda, monsters drop money when defeated. Although where the slime puts his coins, we don't want to know. |
The improved graphics make the towns look even better than the original. |
Monsters abound in this world filled with evil. |
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Developer |
Nintendo Software Technologies (NST) |
Publisher |
Nintendo of America |
Genre |
Action Adventure |
Players |
1 |
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Curiously, SNK gave Nintendo the rights to remake Crystalis for the Game Boy Color, rather than handle the project for its own Neo Geo Pocket Color. Why, you ask? We're not too sure. Could it be that SNK already had an inkling of the demise of the NGPC? Unlikely. It's probably more likely that the company simply wasn't too interested, and let Nintendo have the game. Which is a shame -- the NGPC really needs a great RPG. And now it will never get one.
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