An enjoyable and visually pleasing action-rpg
Game-play/Play-mechanics: The core game-play is traditional top-down movement very similar to Zelda controls, only you can also jump around in Beyond Oasis and also have a few more attacks to utilize, depending upon the weapon that is equipped. Beyond Oasis, like Zelda, features a gauntlet of clever puzzles to go along with the action-oriented game-play. One significant way that the two games differ is that while Zelda makes use of special items to solve puzzles/obstacles, Beyond Oasis instead has elemental based companions tag along with the hero in order to achieve similar goals. The player can switch between elementals freely as needed to solve the riddles and make further progress, the elementals can also assist with fighting adversaries; there is plenty of good puzzle-solving fun to be had here and it mixes seamlessly with the action/adventure portions of the game. One complexity regarding the adventure is that you have limits on your weaponry before they break and become unavailable, so it is wise to conserve the more powerful weapons for when you really need them because only a modest supply is found throughout the game; the same can be said for the healing items, and the adventure progression is a little odd in that you will journey to one area after another without being able to return to the one town for much of the quest. There is a good deal of fun-factor overall in the game-content, a bit of a more modest scale than Zelda 3, but the quest length and events are satisfactory nonetheless, and Beyond Oasis has superior boss encounters to Zelda, some of the very best for a Genesis game.
Visuals/Artwork: Beyond Oasis features some of the most exquisite visuals and artwork on a 16-bit console. The fluidity of the animation is astonishing and the color palette just jumps out at you and always looks gorgeous. The areas are a very nice mix of outdoor environments, the full complement pretty much, and atmospheric cavern areas based upon various elements. Bosses are some of the coolest looking that I have ever seen, very large, well-animated, and illustrated impressively and stylistically. Beyond Oasis is arguably the best looking game ever released on the Sega Genesis.
Music/Sound: Yuzo Koshiro is widely considered to be one of the highest-caliber composers in the video-game world, particularly in the 16-bit era, and for good reason based on past works. With Beyond Oasis Koshiro took a more experimental approach and the results are generally good but not quite up to par with his previous top accomplishments. He uses very fantasy/classical oriented arrangements featuring a lot of trumpets and horns, which come through the Genesis sound-system pretty well. Some strange aspects to the pieces are how the music volume will become very quiet, and then suddenly quite loud in the mix, which feels a little odd when playing. Overall the melodies are accessible enough and are complementary to the environments where they are used. In summary, Beyond Oasis is a game that anybody who likes gaming from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras should invest some time to play through, especially those who enjoy top-down action role-playing games.