Devilish: The Next Possession
Devil's Crush meets BreakoutGenre: arcade - n/a
Publisher: Sage's Creation
Year: 1992
System: Genesis
Gameplay Score: 2
Gameplay Notes:
Have you played Breakout, Arkanoid, or Kirby's Block Ball? Then you've got a grasp of what this game is. It's a block breaker. Gimmick is that the screen scrolls vertically and sometimes laterally. Also, you've got two paddles. They move together horizontally, but the top one can be moved vertically and can be arranged to face up, left, or right. Several different types of blocks, but they all just act as a barrier to be destroyed with a couple of hits. Enemies interact with the ball but not the paddles. Two major problems exist - hit detection is terrible, and the game suffers from a tremendous amount of slowdown. The slowdown is annoying but tolerable. The hit detection, on the other hand, can be extremely frustrating. The ball often doesn't bounce when or how you expect it to and your paddle can phase right through it so it's unclear what will happen when the paddle is placed just below or inside of the ball. Nearly ruins what is otherwise a great game and great concept.
Level Design Score: 4
Level Design Notes:
The levels are pretty cool. For the most part you can trap the ball up against the top of the screen with the top paddle to quickly clear out and scroll the screen upward. Each level ends with a boss battle. A few annoying elements are used like a guy with a shield who blocks almost the entire path forward, and a big gear which grabs the ball and moves it around a big circle. There are a couple of spots where these two elements are combined. It's nearly impossible to get the ball out ofthe gear which results in the ball making a full circle and falling outthe bottom of the screen. Despite that issue I loved the levels. They're far more engaging than the boring samey levels in Breakout or Arkanoid.
Theme Score: 4
Theme Notes:
The story is bonkers - a prince and princess were tranformed into paddles by an evil dude. Uh, ok. The setting is really cool though. It's basically Devil's Crush. Has a Ghouls n Ghosts vibe as well. A big zipper made of bones opens and closes each level
Art Style Score: 3
Art Style Notes:
Great artwork, but the performance is horrible. Slowdown everywhere.
Audio Score: 4
Audio Notes:
Great music. Sound is nice as well
Overall Score: 58
Review ID: 868
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