LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Actraiser
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For the initiate, Actraiser was groundbreaking back in the day. It was released among the first wave of titles for the Super Nintendo in 1991, and was published by Enix . The game featured side-scrolling action stages where you play The Master (God) in his quest to eradicate evil from the land and restore peace and prosperity. After hacking and slashing your way through the level and defeating the boss of the side scrolling segment, the player would transform into The Angel in a top down perspective for the strategy/action segments to protect your villages and destroy neighboring monsters. Once the various monster lairs were defeated, they would leave behind a glowing circular disk. When you capture the disk, it would restore part of your town, or landscape. You objective was to restore all of the lost segments of your land.
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Overall, Actraiser is a unique game that does a good job of combining two very different gaming elements. It is similar to Civilization meets Conan. The allegory and the religious symbolism are very clear, in the game, and many people will recognize other Christian allusions as they play besides the obvious God versus Satan duel. It has been called by many the greatest game of all time, and it is certainly recommended for download. This is a classic, and you will not be at all disappointed in its play.
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The first Actraiser game had a nice uptempo and uplifting soundtrack that really carried the mood of the game well. Just as the original gameplay was ditched, so to was the quality soundtrack. The music in Actraiser 2 never really hits stride and often sounds very repetative and unemotional. In places, the music tries to be creepy or scary and doesn't really accomplish either, and manages to come off sounding fairly bland. There's just no fire in any of the tunes and it only makes a game that's already a lesson in futility, even more annoying than it already is. The one shining item in the game comes in the way of the sound effects. Luckily many of the sound effects were plucked from the first game so at least you get a little quality thrown into the mix.
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It looks like Square-Enix is preparing to release Actraiser on the Virtual Console soon since the ESRB has a rating for it. Square-Enix already brought Actraiser, their god sim cross action game, in the Europe and Japan. Since Square-Enix is selling Actraiser on the Wii’s virtual console chances for a Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter-like remake are probably out of the question.
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The gameplay of Actraiser alternates between side-scrolling action and overhead-view "god" simulation. Typically, the player uses his sword to fight through a side-scrolling level with monsters and an end-boss. The defeat of the end-boss opens up a new section of the overhead-view world. The overhead-view portion of the gameplay requires the player to take actions that encourage the growth of the population, such as instructing the people where to build roads, houses and farmland. Population growth causes the people to provide the player with offerings that give the player new magical powers or increase the player's attributes such as the maximum amount of health. When the population reaches a certain amount, a catastrophe of some kind threatens the current world area, such as the formation of a volcano that spews lava and rocks over the population.
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Actraiser is a fun action/strategy hybrid from Quintet/Enix for the SNES. You play the role of a god who is trying to reclaim the earth from evil beings and make it habitable for your people. Similar to EVO but even more so, Actraiser adds strategic elements to the standard 2D side-scrolling gameplay. Each area in the game is divided into two "Acts," with a simulation scene in-between. The "Acts" are standard sidescrolling scenes where you see your [A]lter ego onscreen, wielding the sword to fight monsters. These scenes are fun, with diverse terrain and multiple paths.
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Actraiser