Words: Mav

Pix: Courtesy of Sega

Bargain.bin looks at the retro, emulator friendly games that we must never, ever forget. This month, it's Shining Force. Just look at this enigmatic bloke- he means business.

There have been worse names for an army, but one does wonder what’s so great about the Shining Force. The Killy Force would be better, surely? However in an archetypal fantasy world torn by the battle between good and evil, it’s Shining or Dark, me laddo, none of this Ultimate Force shit. Oh, except you can’t join the Dark, because it’s 16 bit and frankly there was barely enough space for the good guys to have a story. So, grab your sword and shield, young adventurer, and face a torrent of violence that would drive any man insane, if it wasn’t filtered into a lovely square format.

That’s right- in the topsy turvy world of Shining Force (subtitle: The Legacy of Great Intention), everything fits on a neat square board. Your doods are square, your houses are square and your prowess in battle is measures by how many squares you can subjugate. Don’t let this put you off though- we’re talking about some high-end square graphics here, and ‘in battle’ as it were, we see some nifty animations done all proper like.

You play as Max, or whatever you choose to name him (we opted for Daddy), lives in Guardiana, a shitty backwater kingdom in the land of Rune. Guardiana is attacked by the armies of Runefaust, led by the evil Dark Sol. Apart from having better names, these guys are solid evil muthas and want to resurrect the ancient Dark Dragon, which would be bad for everyone smaller than a dragon. It’s up to Max, who is sent on a suicide mission with the other village youths, to stop the invaders. Along the way, they get pally with a variety of cool folks, from the standard fantasy fare- mages, centaurs, dwarves, elves, to the more outlandish- wolfmen, dragons,  and a squid thingy.

So what makes this retro game worth searching the bargain .bins for? It’s a classic RPG for starters, and for fans of the genre it will expose the missing link between  figety dos fantasy and the 3D wonderland we have today. It has a funky soundtrack, as all old games do, and has a bundle of sequels to play with. The second game indeed is in my eyes better than the first, and a brand new Shining game is set to come out on the DS in February. Bet it won’t have sexy squares, though.

Shining Force (mega drive)

- Dragon on team!

- Wolf man on team!

- Save the little elfs with geometric precision

- I’ve seen worse Forces

4 Z’s out of 5