Act Raiser

Box cover

Act Raiser was Quintet's first game, published by Enix and released for the Super Nintendo (Super Famicom in Japan) 1990 in Japan, 1991 in the U.S. and 1993 in Europe.

It was quite a unique game as half of the game played like a traditional action platformer, but the other half was essentially an early God/City-building-sim.

You take the role as "The Master"; a divine being inhabiting a heavenly floating palace.
When the game begins the world is overrun by demons and your power was sealed away by a powerful demon called Tanzra.
To regain your power, you must make the people regain their faith in you.

The masters soul descending into a warrior statue

However first you must defeat some demons, to make the earth habitable for humans again.
You must start with Fillmore, but since the areas are restricted to your level, and it is possible to gain several levels in each area, the rest of the game isn't completely linear. Although there is of course an intended order with increasing difficulty.

Boss: Fillmore Act I

To defeat the demons and make Fillmore habitable, you play a 2D platform stage known as an "Act".
The first one is "Filmore Act 1". Each such stage ends with a boss battle.
You descend your sky palace to posses statues in the shape of warriors in order to fight the demons.
This part of the game is very much what you would expect from a platform game of the time.
It is certainly not bad, but not really anything special either. Quite honestly, if the platformer part was the entire game, it would have been a rather mediocre game.

Moving the sky palace over the world

You can walk left and right, jump with one button, and cut your sword with another button.
Once you get a bit further in the game, you will also be able to use a third button to cast magic for a limited amount of times.
You can find extra lives, and health restore, as well as bonus points and a weapon upgrade that makes your sword shoot.
Some of the stages also have alternate routes to the end of the stage.

I did find the controls for this part of the game to be slightly awkward, but on the other hand, you Are controlling a statue. This ins't a big problem, but is rather a question of getting used to the controls.
Also, if you loose all your lives, you are returned to the sky palace, and can try again.
It is literally impossible to get Game Over, but that certainly doesn't mean it is an easy game. Count on trying several times to beat many of the stages. Luckily you can choose difficulty, but even on easy mode the game isn't a pushover.

Angel shooting a demon

Once you have completed "Act 1" you can control your angel to help the people build their city.
You will have to listen to your peoples needs and desires, and use miracles to help them. For instance, sending sunlight can dry up snowy fields, and sending rain can transform dessert into grassy plains.
Meanwhile you must use your angel to defend your people against the remaining flying demons that harass them in different ways. Such as kidnapping people from their homes, or setting fire to their fields.

The demons spawn from lairs, and after helping your people of a city to seal all lairs, you will be asked to defeat more demons, located in some kind of dungeon (castle, volcano, etc.).
Again you will have to play another platform stage; "Act 2".

If you have problems with the "Act" parts of the game, try playing the "Sim" part some more, since you will level up as your population increases. People may also offer you gifts, such as new magic, and scrolls that gives you extra magic points.

In the end you will find that you will go back and forth between your cities in "Sim" mode, since people will make discoveries that is needed by other cities to evolve and thrive.

As with most platformers, you will have to learn the movement and attack patterns of the bosses to have a chance to defeat them. Although, as you gain more magic and magic points bosses will become easier. But this strategy will do you a disservice, since as with most Japanese platformers you will have to battle all the bosses (from "Act 2") once again, but this time sequentially, and not regaining health or magic in between in the end of the game. Followed, of course by the final boss Tanzra.
And just as most other Japanese platformers, you will find the final boss has several forms that is progressively more difficult.

I can very well imagine a lot of players getting through the entire game, only to get utterly stuck at the final stage. The only reason I could beat the game at all was that I played on easy mode, and even then it was really difficult.

View of the world before any areas has been freed from the demons control

Even though the two parts of the game; the Sim part, and the Act part, is so fundamentally different (so much so that it essentially feels like two different games), it is cohesive in story and theme, and the parts actually end up complementing each other. For instance the fact that levels and items gained in Sim mode are useful in the Act stages; if you find a stage too tough to beat, try helping your people and you might get more health or mana to use the next time you play that stage.

Honestly, if either part of the game would have to stand on their own, it would be mediocre at best (which kind of make me question the "Action Mode" that let's you play through all the platform stages, but not the Sim part from the "Story Mode"). But together they create a synergy that makes this a true gem of a Super Nintendo game!

Truly a combination of such different game elements is rare even in modern games, which still tends to get a bit boring and repetitive if they are to long. Of course rpgs has long has a remedy for this in the form of mini-games, but to have such radically different game elements as a "core" to the game and not just as something added on is rare.

The original version of the game referred to the protagonist as God and the antagonist as Satan, but due to a policy of Nintendo of America at the time regarding material that could be viewed as offensive, the overtly religious themes in a game, the names where changed, although it still remains rather obvious.
The bosses are based on real-world mythology and religion.

When the game was released for the American market a number of more changes where made.
The title was changed slightly from Actraiser to ActRaiser. Some graphics where changed, such as the monster lairs being changed from a Star of David.
The action segments of the game was made easier in various ways, but the simulation segments were made harder.
There is also a "Professional!" mode unlocked after defeating the game, which contains the action mode more similar to the Japanese version. This mode is available from the start in the European version as "Action mode".
Another change to the European versions was the choice of difficulty. Generally Beginner is similar to the American version and Normal to the Japanese, while Expert goes beyond them both.

Japanese cover

It was also released for the Wii virtual console in 2007.
A version was made for Nintendo Super System, which only featured the arcade stages.
Another version was made available to mobile phones in 2004. It only contained the first three platform stages of the game.

This was Quintet's first game, and since, they have made more innovative games of great quality such as the Soul Blazer trilogy. The exception in my opinion is "Act Raiser 2", which was a far better action platformer than the first part, but on the other hand that was all it was; they had removed the Sim part that make the first game so great. The superior quality of the first game is also apparent in the pricing of used copies of the game, which is higher than the sequel.

About €60 for used game, cartridge only.
Around €100 for used game complete with box.
€500 for a brand new copy of the game.