What happens when you take an average anime and a hilarious manga and make it into a game?
The story begins with in town called Staccato Village. It was under attack be 3 giant monsters that look like alligators (crocodiles I don't even care) and said that they wanted people to show themselves to the Demon Lord. A little boy was in the way and was about to probably be eaten by one of them. Just as they tried to, a girl named Flute gets in the way and tries to protect the little boy. One of the alligator monsters takes it as that she's trying to protect and sacrifice herself, so he goes in for the kill. Suddenly, the townsfolk and the monsters hear music, the people search to find where the serene music is coming from. Up on the roof was the Legendary hero named Hamel playing his violin. His violin was different from any other because the music he plays has the power to 'move your soul' and defeat monsters. When the townsfolk look back at the monsters, they are dancing in unison to the music and they cannot stop. Flute however, is awestruck that Hamel, the Legendary Hero is in her town protecting them and fighting off the monsters with the sound of his violin. After the attack, Flute thanks Hamel for saving her and the village. She is also introduced to Oboe, a talking bird that's always with Hamel. She thinks that she will be the one to stop those monsters, but apparently she can't do it on her own so she asks Hamel if he can help stop these monster attacks. Hamel agrees, but he says that he'll help unless Flute comes with him. So she agrees and goes with him on this journey.
Gameplay (9.5/10):
The game is a 2D side-scroller like Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, etc. The outworld is like Super Mario World where you can go back to some levels or even back to the town. Your basic goal is to get to the end of the level like the usual side-scrollers. You can also obtain gold by just collecting it or my favorite way, using Flute as a weapon, you can pick her up with the X button and then toss her at enemies, if you can kill the enemy with her, you'll get gold which you'll need so you can purchase items. But be careful, Flute has a life bar as well, I don't know what happens, but all I know is that Flute gets mad when her health bar reaches 0. Hamel has his own means of attacking, don't worry. He attacks by playing his violin. It will shoot a music note at the enemy. You can also collect Music notes to extend the range of Hamel's projectile attacks. When you get deeper in the levels, you will come across a costume that represents an animal or an object like an Ostrich, Frog, or even a Curling Puck. At first, I thought these costumes were just to be collected, but actually these costumes serve a purpose throughout the game. You can access these costumes by pausing the game and selecting the costume with the Start button. Flute will then appear inside a bag then emerge from it with the selected costume. Each costume has its own special ability like the Ostrich costume gives Flute the ability to walk over spikes, the Frog Costume makes Flute jump higher when standing on top of her, and so on. Some of the costumes can be used as attacks. The funny thing about these costumes is that Flute does not like wearing them, she will be either angry or disappointed like "Whatever." When you get to the end of the level you may get the chance to play a Bonus Stage where you have to collect 100 gold pieces and get to the exit within the time limit. My only complaint about the game is that this game has a Suicide button, just pause the game and press the Select button.
Graphics, Music and Sound (9/10): The graphics are that of a Super Famicom game so it's more brighter than an actual SNES game. The graphics are pretty cool. The music, if you listen closely you'll notice that most of them are a 16-bit rendition of classical music like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Beethoven, etc. Sound effect wise.
Replay Value (HIGH) : Another game with high replay value.
Overall:
I like this game and I'm sure you will too. I liked every little thing about the game. From the story, the gameplay, the graphics, everything except the suicide button! This is one of those games that could not disappoint. It's too bad that this game didn't see an international release.
WIth my Sonic the Hedgehog rating system, Violinist of Hamelin for the Super Famicom gets an "A".