While Ecco The Dolphin is probably my favorite below-average at best Genesis game, El Viento is probably my favorite above-average at best Genesis game.
El Viento's most striking quality for many in the retro community is it's anime aesthetic cutscenes and the female protagonist Annet, which is possibly why it's a tad overhyped by certain circles of the internet with an older populace, namely GameFAQs. What do I see over there? Why, four perfect 10 reviews! It's a shame that I must admit that it was the reason I also tried the game out, I like Annet's Jojo Part 2 headband and the fact she's a descendant of Hastur is pretty fucking sick, not gonna lie. Would totally hang out with her. It's also worth note that Al Capone is in this game, the localization changes him to "Vincente DeMarco" so no one on Renovation's publishing team ended up getting whacked I guess. They really had their priorities straight with this one, who cares about "even a bovice like you can handle thisbeast!"? /beast wrestler reference
This is a side-scrolling action game that feels like there's a ton of heart here, but with a lot of amatuer-ish execution that requires the big health bar you gain across the game to tank the inevitable hits you'll end up taking. Annet at the start can only throw boomerangs and hurl fireballs, but over the course of the game she gains access to new spells which she can use via charging with the C button. The longer you hold it, the bigger the spell is. The first spell you get is actually pretty well incorporated into the game, because you get it after killing some water dragon mini-bosses. However, later Anett just randomly runs into them in stages. What's a wind spell doing inside a ship guarded by horrifically pixelated giant squids/octopi? This kinda gives credence to the thought that the game was rushed, along with the fact that later stages are just really really short compared to the beginning ones. It's unfortunate that Wolf Team's answer to the easy later stages was to make the final one nothing but a constant bombardment of bats locked onto your sprite.
Regardless, El Viento manages to be a fairly fun game with snappy control, some satisfying colossal pixel explosions, a very very good soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba and a sick intro. Another game on the Genesis that I adore presentation-wise with some less-than-stellar gameplay, although this one isn't exactly a mean-spirited mess designed to brutalize the player like Shadow of the Beast is. I'll take the bats from El Viento's final stage over the absolutely abominable shmup stage from Shadow of the Beast or Welcome To The Machine from Ecco.
El Viento's worst problem I feel is it's bittersweet ending as well as the series' own future that would follow. Most games in a series tend to start pretty shakey or okay-ish, but pick themselves up and get better like Sonic the Hedgehog or Streets of Rage, but the El Viento trilogy unfortunately only gets progressively worse from here on out. Earnest Evans is a comedic kusoge with a funny marionette-esque protagonist who is anime Indiana Jones to the point even Renovation was calling them out for it via the western cover art, and while Anett Futatabi on Mega-CD brings back the superior protagonist it's possibly one of the worst beat'em ups I've ever played.
A sad end for something that could've been good. If anyone on IGDB fucks with this game's cover art and puts in the shitty westernized Renovation one I'll track them down and stab them in the face with a soldering iron.
El Viento's most striking quality for many in the retro community is it's anime aesthetic cutscenes and the female protagonist Annet, which is possibly why it's a tad overhyped by certain circles of the internet with an older populace, namely GameFAQs. What do I see over there? Why, four perfect 10 reviews! It's a shame that I must admit that it was the reason I also tried the game out, I like Annet's Jojo Part 2 headband and the fact she's a descendant of Hastur is pretty fucking sick, not gonna lie. Would totally hang out with her. It's also worth note that Al Capone is in this game, the localization changes him to "Vincente DeMarco" so no one on Renovation's publishing team ended up getting whacked I guess. They really had their priorities straight with this one, who cares about "even a bovice like you can handle thisbeast!"? /beast wrestler reference
This is a side-scrolling action game that feels like there's a ton of heart here, but with a lot of amatuer-ish execution that requires the big health bar you gain across the game to tank the inevitable hits you'll end up taking. Annet at the start can only throw boomerangs and hurl fireballs, but over the course of the game she gains access to new spells which she can use via charging with the C button. The longer you hold it, the bigger the spell is. The first spell you get is actually pretty well incorporated into the game, because you get it after killing some water dragon mini-bosses. However, later Anett just randomly runs into them in stages. What's a wind spell doing inside a ship guarded by horrifically pixelated giant squids/octopi? This kinda gives credence to the thought that the game was rushed, along with the fact that later stages are just really really short compared to the beginning ones. It's unfortunate that Wolf Team's answer to the easy later stages was to make the final one nothing but a constant bombardment of bats locked onto your sprite.
Regardless, El Viento manages to be a fairly fun game with snappy control, some satisfying colossal pixel explosions, a very very good soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba and a sick intro. Another game on the Genesis that I adore presentation-wise with some less-than-stellar gameplay, although this one isn't exactly a mean-spirited mess designed to brutalize the player like Shadow of the Beast is. I'll take the bats from El Viento's final stage over the absolutely abominable shmup stage from Shadow of the Beast or Welcome To The Machine from Ecco.
El Viento's worst problem I feel is it's bittersweet ending as well as the series' own future that would follow. Most games in a series tend to start pretty shakey or okay-ish, but pick themselves up and get better like Sonic the Hedgehog or Streets of Rage, but the El Viento trilogy unfortunately only gets progressively worse from here on out. Earnest Evans is a comedic kusoge with a funny marionette-esque protagonist who is anime Indiana Jones to the point even Renovation was calling them out for it via the western cover art, and while Anett Futatabi on Mega-CD brings back the superior protagonist it's possibly one of the worst beat'em ups I've ever played.
A sad end for something that could've been good. If anyone on IGDB fucks with this game's cover art and puts in the shitty westernized Renovation one I'll track them down and stab them in the face with a soldering iron.
2 Comments
I actually forgot I had that enhancement hack already on my everdrive pro! sweat drop
Would've helped to see the text better on my CRT where some of it was barely seeable in the edges.
Would've helped to see the text better on my CRT where some of it was barely seeable in the edges.
BlazingWaters
1 year ago
I still need to try this out one day, probably with the enhancement hack since it does a lot of touching up