Demon’s Crest is one of those badge of honor games on the SNES. It’s rare and expensive which causes its reputation to get inflated. Much like Ninja Golf it’s a game that was never talked about much until it became expensive and then it suddenly became a lost classic. Now that it’s on Switch I have played it. And I can tell you that it is not a lost classic. It’s an okay game with great visuals but just not enough substance under all that style. It plays like Tails’ Adventures but without the high quality level design. I may be the only one who feels like this on the whole internet, but Demon’s Crest is just not that good of a game.
It’s another adventure platform game where the focus is on exploration and items. It has a world map and some shops which give it an almost RPG feel. So how can an adventure platform game with RPG elements starring a demon be so disappointing? It just doesn’t have enough levels. If you end up with the bad ending there are only three and if you get the good ending there are only six. Six small levels is not enough to sustain a game whose whole gimmick is exploration. Every time you get a new item or power you have to go back through all the levels again to find more stuff. None of the levels are that impressive either. It’s just basic plaforming tropes filled with spikes and ledges. They’re alright once, but not good after having to visit them a dozen times. And if you want to get the good ending you’re going to have to find everything. That means either traversing blindly through the same few levels over and over again or just reading a guide and spoiling the experience altogether.
It’s also not much of a challenge either. Anyone who says it is probably only played the beginning and got frustrated. After You get a few extra hearts and potion jars the levels become easy with only the bosses posing much of a challenge. It’s one of those games that actually gets easier as it goes along. Once again this is because it’s a more powerful demon but the same old levels. I guess I am glad that I didn’t experience too many frustrating deaths as I was wandering around for the last few items, but I still wish it was a more balanced experience. Maybe they could’ve had a few more challenging fixed levels that didn’t have any items to collect. That would’ve broken up that monotony and maybe upped the challenge if they had been designed around a stronger character. There’s a great game in there somewhere, but the developers sure didn’t find it.
It’s a testament of the overall quality of the SNES that this game isn’t going super low on the list. I am going back to my roots and ranking it against Baraduke. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the king of mediocre games, and it still wins that day. Demon’s Crest is going right behind it at 31. It seems like contemporary reviews agreed with me and saw Demon’s Crest as a middling game with great visuals. It was only in the last decade or so that it reached lost classic status. It’s also during that same time frame that its price suddenly rose into triple digits. That’s how classic game collecting goes. Some old game that nobody cares about gets written up in a few posts and shows up on a few lists and all of a sudden it’s a collector’s items. So not only is this game overrated but it also reminds me of my least favorite thing about my hobby. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Super Nintendo Quality Percentage: 3/4 or 75%
1. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
2. Super Mario Odyssey
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Galaga
5. Donkey Kong
6. Exodus: Ultima III
7. Pac-Mania
8. Wrecking Crew
9. Super Pac-Man
10. Pac-Man
11. Viva Pinata
12. Dragon View
13. Excitebike
14. Drakkhen
15. Arc the Lad
16. Clu Clu Land
17. Tails’ Adventures
18. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX
19. Mickey’s Racing Adventure
20. Metro-Cross
21. Double Dragon
22. Ice Climber
23. Gaplus
24. Dragon Spirit
25. Pinball (NES)
26. Ninja Golf
27. Super Soccer
28. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)
29. Red Sea Crossing
30. Baraduke
31. Demon’s Crest
32. Evoland
33. Tennis
34. Renegade
35. Hogan’s Alley
36. Gamma-Attack
37. The Legend of “Valkyrie”
38. Galaxian
39. Dragon Crystal
40. Cosmic Commuter
41. Hot Pixel
42. PocketBike Racer
43. Wild Gunman
44. Defunct
45. Gyruss (2600)
46. Looney Tunes Racing
47. Squidlit
48. Baseball
49. Birthday Mania
50. Bad Street Brawler
51. Burly Men at Sea
52. WeakWood Throne
53. X-Men (HyperScan)
54. My Name is Mayo
55. Marvel Heroes
56. Ben 10
Screenshots from vgmuseum.com
No comments:
Post a Comment