A superb adventure game for it's time with top notch combat, puzzling solving and graphics. Incredible.
And then there was Landstalker. The game, to me, that made the Genesis worth dusting off lovingly. The game's plot is simple. You play as Nigel the treasure hunter with your trusty sidekick. You work your way deeper and deeper into an isometric 3d world full of wonderful quests, towns, monsters intricate puzzles and superb real time combat. Everything about this game for it's time is mind blowing. Right away you can tell the developers put much love and care into this game. The story while simple is well thought out. The monsters are unique and challenging while being fun to fight. Often times killing the monsters is a means to solve one of the games many environmental puzzles, which can also be very challenging while not being overly aggravating. Basically every aspect of this game balances out except one, which i'll cover at the end. Another aspect of this game that greatly appealed to me was that anything you could put in your inventory you could also see in the environment as a 3d object. For example you could see health pots as they lay on the ground you could also pick them up, toss them or put them in your inventory. Same with armor and weapons, they actually exist in the environment, not just as an icon in your inventory and a number on your statistics screen. Many of the game's puzzles relied on these items on the ground being placed properly in the environment. Picking up a block on the ground and carrying to another area added an exciting visceral feel to Landstalker that many games of the time failed to achieve. The game is not exactly epic, but due to the intricacies of the puzzles and towns you can visit on the way and all the hidden secrets and quests in this game you should be entertained blissfully for a good 30 hours.
The only reason I did not give this game a 10, and has already been mentioned in several other reviews is due to the nature of the isometric environment many of the game's puzzles and just general traversing of the landscape can sometimes be frustrating. This game has it's share of make the moving platform jump or die situations. Because of this fixed isometric view, while pleasant to look at caused difficulty when judging what angle of approach you needed while attempting to jump on moving platforms and ledges. This quirky lack of depth perception would leave it up to you to literally guess at times. The average player will often find himself falling to his death, (or the bottom of a dungeon) repeatedly on what is seemingly a simple jump to make. This minor flaw, while not being a complete deterrent from playing Landstalker, might lead the less patient gamer to smash a few controllers. I remember smacking the controller many times playing this. However the game was so fun that this frustration was a mere shadow compared to it's wonder factor. I had the great joy of playing Landstalker on a 60 inch television way back when it was first released. Of course this added to the fun. I have yet to play a game that parallels this one in game play, puzzle solving and just general atmosphere. It seems the days of well thought out gaming has given way to fancy graphics and pixel shading. Landstalker is a rare reminder of better days in gaming and if you never played it and you like this genre you are missing a classic.