OVERVIEW: Young Merlin for the SNES. This game takes majestic and creative fantasy, mixes it with mind-spelling science fiction elements, tops it all off with beautiful graphics, and then throws all that into the crapper to give you this brick of junk. It is based on Merlin, the wizard’s, youth. You play as the ever egotistical, annoying, foolish, stupid, pretty boy Merlin. Not a very likeable guy to play as. I found myself purposely dying just because I hated him. Your mission is to rescue a “beautiful woman” (I use that term VERY lightly, because with this games graphics she is ANYTHING but beautiful, and I had a hard time figuring out if she was a woman or a bag of crap). Apparently, goblins have created havoc in the world of (ok it has no name). Also apparently, the only residents of this world are a goofy looking wizard with a big nose, a lumber jack/George Lucas look-alike, and his daughter (yes, the bag of crap that you were trying to save). It’s Merlin’s job to destroy the Goblin King. Nobody tells you this, you just have to assume (because nobody talks in this game, instead it sounds like “wo..wawawoa wawawa” honestly! Not even any text boxes! There are no words used in this game at all!). You get an assortment of weapons, but they all suck, unless you LIKE throwing stars at enemies (who retaliate by throwing dynamite and hatchets at you!).
GRAPHICS: I can sum this up in one instant of the game, namely the end. The girl kisses Merlin (oops I ruined it for you!) and he turns red. Well, he SHOULD turn red, and is meant to, but that’s not the case. His face ACTUALLY turned red and blue (at the same time) due to some color flaw. It’s scared me and I immediately tried killing Merlin. Also, the characters have a total of about 6 animations each, so they move really funky. Everyone walks like they have a peg leg. They also walk slow. I noticed Merlin is a very ugly character to look at, but the graphics aren’t to blame for that. The graphics are horrible, consisting of no more than 10 colors.
CHALLENGE: This is another game that tells you nothing. Since you don’t know the story, you obviously don’t know what your goal is. So you go around and pick up whatever the hell you can. Of course you don’t know what anything is used for either, and nobody tells you. Also, the enemies just touch you and you suffer damage for each sixteenth of a second they are touching you. They tend to just stand on top of you, and you can’t pass through them, so you die. Also, you have to walk everywhere. When you have no idea what to do, traveling this whole map can be annoying. Very annoying. Almost as annoying as Merlin. It’s a very challenging game, but not in the good way. It’s challenging in that “needle in the haystack but you don’t know where the needle or the haystack is and you don’t know what any items do and everything kills you and nothing is on your side and you don’t even know the purpose of this game” sort of challenge. I did manage to beat the game in 2 days, but it’s still hard. I just don’t have a life. Mwahhahaha.
REPLAY VALUE: Although I played through the game twice (there was a 7 year gap between playing) there is no reason to play it over again. That’s all I have to say about it.
FUN FACTOR: Aside from the game looking like absolute crap and it being incredibly hard, I find it fun. However, ONLY the first time you play it! It’s sort of fun to walk around and get items and use them, if you don’t let it get to you that the game tells you nothing. I also found myself laughing at the noises and actions Merlin made while he got pummeled to death by pig men and dwarves, because I hated him so much.
CONTROL: Here is a very touchy subject. The hit detection sucks. Merlin’s pathing (or whatever) is too large it seems. He gets stuck on hedges that are about 3 spaces away. I’m not sure WHY. Maybe they are phantom shrubbery, or maybe he is allergic? Also, there is a Mine Cart/Skateboarding part (actually about 3 of these, and they are the worst part of the whole game) where the controls don’t seem to respond at all unless you curse at them. A big part of bad controls is this auto-reset thing the makers thought would be a great idea. You hit start, and you see this colorful harp. It looks harmless, let’s play it. Oops, sorry! You just reset your game! Nice try sucker! I refrain from hitting start in this game, just because I have done that before and now I am scared stiff of doing it again. The rest of the controls work much like a Zelda game (B to attack, Y uses special item. No Pegasus Boots though, because Merlin likes to strut around slowly). Mediocre to weak controls.
OVERALL: Overall, I suggest everyone play this game atleast once. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it 4 golden peppers, which means nothing. It’s a one time game, definatly not worth analyzing or getting too into. Although it felt like my eyes were committing suicide as I tried playing it, due to the graphics, and no one tells you what to do, it was still a little fun, once you figured out what the hell everything is. It is much like Lands of Lore, frustrating and horrid and no one tells you anything and you die a lot (another Westwood game!).