ActRaiser combines action sidescroller and RPG elements like it's nobody else's business.
Now to the good stuff. The game spans across six different lands, including a desert, a frozen wasteland, and a tropical island. You have two roles to play. In the first and third parts of each Act, you are the game's equivalent of God. To start your work, you inhabit a warrior statue at the beginning of the level. From there, you slice through enemies with your sword on the way to the boss at the end. There's a lot more button mashing than strategy here, as you're just trying to hack away at his life meter before he can take yours down. To mix things up a bit, you collect a handful of spells along the way, such as a fire spell and a meteor shower. While parts one and three follow the same formula, part two of the acts go in a completely different direction. Having defeated the land's first boss, your trusty angel goes down to do your work, and the first humans are created to reinhabit the land. To help them do so, you'll need to guide them in their building. Obstacles such as rocks and sand often get in the way. Solution? You're God. You're going to call down lightning to blow them appart, or rain to wash the sand away, among other heavenly powers. Once you've cleared enough space away for your people to build, it's time to take care of minor demons flying around the levels. These range from bats, which will pick up your people and take off with them, to giant floating skulls, whose sole purpose is to beat the living tar out of you. You won't die once your life hits zero, but you'll be helpless to fight back until a bar regenerates. In turn for helping out your people, your people will send the help back your way in the form of offerings. Some benefit your angel, such as bombs that kill all enemies on the screen or a powered up arrows for your bow. Others benefit your warrior, such as spells or increased magic. And other times, you'll need to take the offerings of one land to another to help their people. In addition, your life bar (shared by the angel and the warrior) will increase as your total population across all of the lands goes up.
The visuals certainly aren't lacking, given its release date. The animations are all smooth, and the level backgrounds look amazing. The musical score is the art that really stands out, however. Each piece fits its level or overworld perfectly, and the song you receive when one of your lands discovers the blessing of music is incredibly moving. In the end though, my words can't do it justice. You just have to play and hear it for yourself.
All in all, this is a game that should not be missed. If you enjoy a good platformer, or if its hybrid style sounds remotely interesting to you, you should definitely do your best to get your hands on it, especially given the fact that it's only $8 on the Wii's virtual console.