ActRaiser Renaissance

 Switch
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 26
  3. Negative: 3 out of 26

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  1. starrymia
    Oct 10, 2021
    4
    Someone seems to be downvoting even moderate reviews (normally it's only negative reviews that get blindly downvoted) so I doubt anyone will be reading this, but here goes:

    Actraiser was one of the best early video games. It made a relatively simple sim game, made interesting by the inclusion of a relatively new idea: Lots and lots of characterization, fables, and dialogue! Also, the    Someone seems to be downvoting even moderate reviews (normally it's only negative reviews that get blindly downvoted) so I doubt anyone will be reading this, but here goes:

    Actraiser was one of the best early video games. It made a relatively simple sim game, made interesting by the inclusion of a relatively new idea: Lots and lots of characterization, fables, and dialogue! Also, the plot is a beautiful story about the unity of people in bad circumstances, and people should hear it out.

    Did you know that one of the very first video game music concerts was of Actraiser? Look up the Orchestral Video Game Music concerts from the 90s. It was THAT big and influential.

    But there were a lot of parts that I didn't like and that my family and friends didn't like either. For example, there are a couple parts where you get dumped into the sim engine for 20-60 minutes (depending how long you chase butterflies) with nothing happening except for watching people cultivate the land, which forces the player to get to know the engine's limitations very intimately. The pauses in the action mostly take place in Kasandora, although early Fillmore and all its tutorials count too.

    For another, the action game engine is just bad. Diagonal jumping is somewhere between hard and impossible, and there's no momentum curve (like in any Super Mario) where your character slowly picks up speed and gradually slows down when you're not moving. Momentum was added to the first Mario game to make it feel more lively and less like you're piloting a robot. Without that, Actraiser has always felt like you're guiding a fighting game character over long distances. Have you ever walked from one side of the screen to the other in Street Fighter? Even that feels like a long way to walk with that kind of a movement system. So, walking through massive levels with lots of enemies feels less lifelike than it could, and it takes a while.

    Someone else on here complained that this game was changed too much from the original. I actually disagree; this release could have added a lot more than it did and fixed a lot more than it did.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

66
#66 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Cubed3
    Dec 20, 2021
    60
    The rearranged soundtrack coupled to new compositions is stunningly awesome, as Yuzo Koshiro recaptures brilliantly the spirit of the original and the gameplay of the side-scrolling sections is even better than in the original. However, the questionable choices in the art direction, the bugs, poor performance and the, at times, way too wordy expanded script, mar the experience in such a way that what should have been the masterful return of a masterpiece instead turns out to be a nice introduction to the classic for new audiences, but not much more. There's no shaking the feeling that this re-release was not treated with all the care that such an important landmark title deserved. The extra content sweetens the deal somewhat, and encourages fans of the original to come back for more, but the price of admission for such an end result is a bit too much perhaps.
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  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Nov 30, 2021
    68
    Nice remaster of an unusual game that successfully blends together platformer, strategy and god-sim genres. Playing as an omnipotent deity is a rare treat these days, and the great soundtrack makes it even better. [Issue#256, p.59]
  3. RPG Fan
    Oct 27, 2021
    90
    There’s nothing like Actraiser Renaissance‘s seamless genre-blending, and the surprising depth in each facet makes the game all the more timeless. The extensive main campaign is followed by newly added post-game content that keeps the surprises coming, including an additional area to develop and a score mode. The ways to approach Actraiser Renaissance are as boundless as the content it provides, making it a revival that is well worth experiencing.
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