| Firestriker Holy Striker |
|
|---|---|
North American cover art |
|
| Developer(s) | Axes Art Amuse[1] |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Artist(s) | Jose Shibata[2] Gonta Ikeda[2] Jun Ikeda[2] |
| Composer(s) | Nori Atsumi[3] |
| Platform(s) | Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Action[1] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player[2] Multiplayer[2] |
Firestriker (ホーリーストライカー, lit. "Holy Striker")[4] is an overhead view action video game that was released on December 17, 1993 in Japan and on October 1994 in North America exclusively for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Contents |
The four element-based kingdoms competed against each other for the Trialight, a weapon that was designed by an archmage named Wylde that can only be handled by a Firestriker.[2][5] In the end, the wind kingdom won and united the four realms under their control.[2][5] The archmage was not content with this peaceful world and sent in four monsters to topple this united planet.[2][5] Playing as the Slader (the final Firestriker), he must help the kingdom of wind liberate the other kingdoms and defeat the monsters that lie in his path.[2][5]
This game is more of a pinball-like action video game as opposed to it being a standard role-playing video game.[5] The Trialight is a ball of fire that operates like a standard pinball.[5] While the Firestriker can freely walk across the screen, he must prevent the Trialight from falling off the screen.[5] Other conditions for losing is having the Firestriker get killed by monsters and failing to get the Trialight to the screen's immediate exit.[5] The left and right shoulder buttons control a magician who always is at the bottom of the screen in one-player mode.[5] Bosses must be defeated and other Firestrikers can be made allies in order to beat important parts of the game.[5]
The game also allows Firestriker duels for two to four players in addition to a co-operative mode for two-player simultaneous action.[5] Firestriker duels for four players tend to play out more like soccer matches as opposed to two-player and three-player duels.[6]
Spel, the boss that the player has to beat in the wind level does a Mr. T quote; simply replacing the Mr. T character with the Archmage Wylde character.[2] While the quote is copyrighted by Mr. T, its satirical use in the game qualifies it for fair use status under the copyright laws of the United States.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Allgame | |
| GamePro | |
A sub-par level of game designing and production in addition to easily-acheived deaths help to bring down the production values of a video game that otherwise had potential to become a well-designed hybrid role-playing/overhead action video game.[6] Although the game itself only has 14 levels of actual gameplay, the typical settings of the 1980s classic video games Arkanoid and Breakout are placed in unfamiliar setting along with generic enemies and the opening of treasure chests using the Trialight itself.[6] The sound effects and graphics are barely above the 8-bit standards used for the Nintendo Entertainment System; whose lifespan was beginning to wane during the mid 1990s.[6]