Equinox (video game)
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| Equinox | |
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| Developer(s) | Software Creations |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Imagesoft |
| Platform(s) | SNES |
| Release date | 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | Cartridge |
Equinox is an isometric 3D action–puzzle-hybrid video game for the Super NES. Also known as Solstice II, it is the sequel to Solstice, a Nintendo Entertainment System game.
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[edit] Plot
Shadax, the wizard hero of Solstice, has been captured and imprisoned by his former apprentice, Sonia. It’s up to his son Glendaal, the only man with the magical powers strong enough to defeat the evil sorceress, to journey through eight levels and hundreds of rooms of tricky platform-jumping and block-sliding puzzles to rescue him from the Sonia's icy fortress.
[edit] Gameplay
Each level plays out in a similar way. Glendaal moves from room to room looking for ‘tokens’ (blue orbs), twelve of which must be collected and brought to a boss area where they enable the ‘summoning’ of one of the game’s boss characters. Each of these must be defeated to enable progress to the next area. To aid the player in their quest, one projectile weapon and one magic scroll is hidden on each level for Glendaal to find. Colour coded keys/gates and block-shifting puzzles abound. Most levels contain a number of entrances which are accessed from an over-world map, home to a sparse collection of wandering monsters.
Software Creations originally intended Equinox to feature villages and NPCs in the manner of a Japanese RPG, but time-constraints saw these ideas jettisoned for a more streamlined arcade adventure design. Although other RPG elements remain (health and magic points which increase after each level; the collection of weapons and spells), Equinox is generally not considered an RPG.
[edit] Levels
Galadonia: The player starts the game without any weapons or spells in a typical castle-dungeon environment. This small level culminates in a battle with Bonehead, a giant skull.
Tori: An underground cavern. Notable features include an atmospheric dripping-water sound effect and the first appearance of movable block puzzles. The boss is Sung Sung, a rock monster.
Deeso: A Mayan/Aztec temple. Gameplay in this level displays a marked increase in difficulty. The boss, Quetzacoatl, is a five-segment stone pole that gradually decreases in height as it is damaged.
Atlena: An underwater level, dressed with seaweed and with a translucent rippling filter that covers the whole screen. Tranquil harp music completes the effect. Pincha, a giant crab, is the boss here.
Quagmire: Quagmire looks like an abandoned stately home infested with swamp-life. Eerie and ambient music complements the atmosphere. The boss is the aptly-named Dollop, a big blob of slime.
Afralona: An Egyptian temple. Eyesis, a spinning pyramid, is the boss here.
Ghost Ship: A large and irregularly shaped pirate ship, complete with creaking timber sound effects and a swaying camera. Billy Bones, a cannon-wielding skeleton, guards the exit.
Ice Palace: The final dungeon has just one entrance, and continues in a linear fashion through halls of ice, accompanied by the distant sound of rushing wind. The wicked Sonia is the game’s final boss.
[edit] Graphics
The improved graphical capabilities of the SNES over the NES enabled Equinox's visual advancements over its predecessor. Larger-scaled rooms and environments necessitate the use of eight-way scrolling, in contrast to Solstice's fixed-camera, single-screen rooms. Character sprites are larger, more brightly colored, and more detailed; boss enemies in particular are exceptionally large, dwarfing the player's character. Interestingly, Nintendo themselves designed and animated Glendaal, and sent the results to Software Creations for inclusion in the game.
[edit] Sound & music
Like all Software Creations games, Equinox is notable for the quality of its audio accompaniment. Sound effects are atmospheric with appropriate use of echo, from Glendaal’s footsteps to the impressively heavy sound of a stone block being pushed across a stone floor. Dripping water and distant, rushing wind sound realistic and add to the atmosphere of the game.
The music by Geoff and Tim Follin is inventive and original, holding its own against the better-known compositions of Japanese chip-composers like Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) and Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger). The style is hard to pin down as it mostly avoids the usual route of simulating ‘real’ instruments, opting instead for a warm synthesizer sound, like something from a 1970’s kids TV series (a darker version of The Clangers perhaps). About 70% is purely ambient, consisting of seemingly random bleeps and strange noises played at low volume. Short tunes drift in and out of the wash, the only exception being the boss battles which play to constant, thumping electronica.
[edit] Problems
The collision detection in Equinox can be very harsh, using a grid system whereby Glendaal dies if any of his pixels moves into a square containing a ball of spikes, even if he doesn’t appear to touch them. When coupled with the unfamiliar isometric perspective and unintuitive controls (pressing ‘up’ moves you in a NE direction, ‘Left’ moves you NW etc.), this can become the cause of many deaths. The fixed 3D perspective presents other inherent problems, when a high block at the front of the screen appears to be in the same position as a low block further back. Also, barely signposted invisible doors make a couple of the levels harder than they should be.
[edit] Trivia
Sprite artist Dave Edmondson has stated in interviews that Sung-Sung's design is based on Richard M. Nixon[citation needed] .
