Elemental Master (Genesis) review on HonestGamers

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Review by Zigfried
April 16, 2005

Elemental Master has a lot going for it. Constant action. An awesome D&D theme. Inventive gameplay. Memorable music. The sight of a grown man crying.

Okay, so that last one falls under "pathetic" rather than "cool", but four out of five isn't bad!

It all begins with a showdown between the thunder magician Laden (shouldn't it be Rayden?) and the big bad hombre, the King of Darkness — Gyra! Just as the battle is about to begin, Gyra removes his Griffin-esque mask, revealing himself to be none other than Laden's own brother, Roki! (But shouldn't it be Loki?) According to the instruction manual, he also sometimes goes by the name Aryaag, which is a super-clever disguise (Gyra backwards).

Adding further fuel to the fire, Gyra-Roki-Aryaag kidnapped the Good King Lorelei (isn't that a girl's name?) and imprisoned him beneath the earth, along with a couple hundred loyal retainers. Just as Laden finally gets up off his bum after being dumbstruck, Gyra-Roki-Aryaag snaps his fingers, beckoning two generals to his side: the demonic ogre CLAUSS and his twisted sister SALOME (but doesn't that mean "peace"?)

Gyra-Roki-Aryaag's revelation and taunts leave you, the heroic lightning wizard Laden, in dumbfounded shock. And dumb is exactly how Laden looks at this point in the anime introduction. Fortunately, he temporarily gathers his wits to utter one of the manliest lines in history:

"ENOUGH TALKING. LET'S FIGHT!"

Laden's ferocity is so unexpected that the evil trio runs away, even though they could have totally kicked his puny, un-powered-up ass.

God help us. That's one of the worst openings I've ever seen — and you'll see more of it by the time the game's over. HOWEVER, in between the cinematic lunacy, you'll be treated to one sweet and inventive vertical shooter!

Fire up the first level, and you're immediately beset by the resonating music of Blazing Dance. As volcanoes hurl glowing chunks of FIERY DEATH, you might notice... this dude isn't flying, he's walking! I can hear you now: "BIG FRIGGIN' DEAL." It is a big deal, because the ground-based mechanics allow the game to throw walls at you (to impede your progress), pools of water (to slow you down), and traps such as spikes and lava (to inflict HURT! HURT!). Few shooters feature this much environmental interaction, and it's a nice change of pace from the norm.

Technosoft doesn't stop there. In one scene, while running between cliff walls, you have to watch out for the punks on either side that are trying to roll boulders on your head. But then a gust picks up, creating a wind tunnel within the canyon — so now you've got to fight not only the boulder-bums and spitting plants, but you've got to fight the wind at your back as well!

But the coolness doesn't end with the environments — Elemental Master demands a ton of full-screen attention as well. It all stems from one big gameplay gimmick: Laden's ability to hurl magical bolts either forwards or backwards (one button assigned to each direction). This lets you take on a spear-chucking centaur from the front, and instantly turn and wipe out a battalion of vampire bats from behind! Technosoft took advantage of the player character's versatility and made sure to offer up plenty of situations where enemies come at you from both sides. Pea-green demons descend from the front, and if you don't wipe them all out, they turn around and come right back from the rear! Mummies rise from the ground behind you, as enormous statues slowly amble from above. Do you wipe out the faster but weaker mummies, or do you focus on the slow but durable golems waiting up ahead? It's a nonstop swarm of intricate intensity, leading straight up to an enormous boss.

The bosses, while insanely cool, are also insanely easy. They dish out plenty of firepower but they're so pattern-based that, given two or three tries, you'll be able to whoop most of 'em without taking a hit. For the most part, the bosses didn't even try. They just kept up their staid old routine, firing at the right side of the screen... even though I'd long since moved to the left. Fortunately, a few do come tougher than the others (such as a giant segmented water dragon and Generaless Salome).

But even though the bosses aren't too exciting, beating them makes the game even better. You see, when you send an Elemental Demon to its death, you gain its power! So suddenly you can do more than just pull a Zeus and hurl lightning bolts, now you can hurl diagonal fireballs or summon huge torrents of water that coat the entire screen!

Once you've gained one of these new weapons, you've got it forever, and you can toggle between them (up to five) on the fly. There's none of this MegaMan-ish "pause the game, stop the action, and switch your weapon" jazz, it's just fast-paced shooting action. And each weapon has an Overpower, such as the fire element's flamethrower (a huge gout of fire that swirls around Laden). Just thinking about this game's versatility gives me shivers.

And then when you learn "the secret to defeat Clauss, Salome, and Gyra" — Laden gains perhaps the coolest Overpower of them all! Speaking of, it's insanely cool when General Clauss comes out to fight. The guy struts out to the beat of this wicked thrash music — there's no denying the game's got style.

However, Technosoft didn't have quite as much style as they thought they did. One of the game's bigger problems (aside from the anticlimactic bosses) is that it tries to wrap a frenetic action experience in epic attire... and fails. How else to explain the nonsensical introduction, or the traumatically overwrought ending sequence? The overwrought ending sequence that bizarrely segues into a sappy-happy pop song. If ever a case could be made for a game being worse through the addition of cinematic sequences, Final Zone 2 would be it. But Elemental Master wouldn't be too far behind.

But considering the action itself is awesome from start to finish... I'm not gonna let some lame cinematics stop me from enjoying the adventure.

TURN IT UP!

And then it gets better. Hit that Reset Button, pop open the hood, and crank the difficulty up to EXPERT. Try out the first level again.... and whoa! A hungry fire dragon shows up and chases Laden's wizardly ass — that wasn't there before! Yep, EXPERT mode doesn't just up the damage and the enemy's stamina, it actually adds new foes to the fray, allowing for an even greater interplay among attack patterns than ever before! A sweet game just got even sweeter.

So hell yes, I recommend Elemental Master. Head on over to eBay and pick it up. Gyra-Roki-Aryaag madness aside, it's EASILY worth the four bucks.

//Zig

Rating
8	Excellent Most of the elements of this game come together in fine form, meaning it's an experience you won't want to miss.
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Game Profile & Content

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Staff Score (Avg): 8.0 User Score (Avg): 9.0 Press Score (Avg): N/A
Reviews: 2 Guides: 0 Cheats: 0 Ratings: 4	High Scores: 0 Screenshots: 2 Videos: 0

Title: Elemental Master
Genre: Shooter
Publisher: Renovation Products
Developer: Technosoft
Release Date: 1993
ESRB: N/A
Save: N/A

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