Let's say that Gargoyles fans, the disney animated series which aired between 1994 and 1997 with great success, a revival worthy of its name was expected when Gargoyles Remastered was announced in the line of other titles that suffered the same fate, such as DuckTales Remastered. And let's say that those characters, who have become iconic for many of us who have been around for a few years now, deserved better treatment than what they have been given over the years.
Gargoyles is a game developed by Disney Software around 1995 for the Mega Drive... or rather, we should say Genesis since it never left American shores. At least not officially. We repeat it without the glasses of nostalgia and write this. Gárgolas review remastered We suffer, briefly but intensely.
Does the beautiful sport last a short time?
Gargoyles Remastered is a very faithful adaptation of the title released in 1995, to the point that with the push of a button you can change the look of the game in an instant, returning to the pixels of the Genesis: the Disney Software title at the time was considered a small graphical masterpiece in the SEGA console library, but it must be said that The new look is much more colorful and similar to the animated series. The animations are fluid, the detail of the sprites is remarkable and some details such as the backgrounds and the lighting of the levels suggest a very well finished product at least from this point of view.
Vacuum Clip Studio, which developed this Remastered, also fixed the original music by Michael Giacchino which in turn were inspired by the animated series, helping to reinforce the value of the video game that adapted the first five episodes, often broadcast in the form of a pilot feature film with the title "The Awakening".
Seen this way, it seems like a winning formula. There is a touch of nostalgia thanks to the function that allows you to restore the 16-bit graphics of the 90s, there is a game that reminds Fifth stage In the iconic beginning of the cartoon, there is the charisma of a protagonist like Goliath and a more adult imagery than one would expect from a Disney production of that time, outlined through short texts between the levels of the game that, unfortunately, , not really. I don't do the animated story justice. And also the new look: colorful, pleasant and refined.
The problem is the gameplay, which leaks everywhere even without one. level design Surprisingly interesting and current. There are only five levels - and the game, in capable hands, can be completed in less than an hour - but they are much more complex than you would expect from an action/platform game of this type, with several alternate paths, small puzzles environmental and passages focused on reflexes and cunning: it is not necessary to defeat all enemies and, in fact, in some cases it is better to surround them and not fight, perhaps taking advantage of the ability Goliath which, like a good gargoyle, can climb walls and ceilings.
For this reason, it almost seems contradictory that Vacuum Clip Studios remained so faithful to a problematic experience back in '95. control system is still the bad guy he was then, with unacceptable responsiveness to input, which the game would only seem to register if Goliath has completed the previous animation. The result is clunky and frustrating gameplay where it's virtually impossible to react to unexpected events. Perhaps that's why the developer has introduced a very useful feature: by pressing a button you can rewind the action as if you were rewinding a VHS tape, to immediately repeat a passage that ended badly.
Sure you can play Gargoyles Remastered without abusing this feature, but the experience is frustrating on all difficulty levels, also because the enemies hit very hard. Goliath's attack animations have no feedback: there is no animation to alert us that the blows have hit their target, and most of the time we find ourselves hitting enemies as if we were attacking the air, except seeing them suddenly collapse .
In other circumstances, especially when the enemies are real sponges, you end up seeing Goliath and his target trading blows while the Gargoyle's health gauge drops precipitously. In short, let the best man win, and there are not many alternatives: we can press a button to throw the enemies - but most of the time we cannot grab them, since the shot will not hit if the enemy is immersed in an animation and not He remains completely still, nor does he attack from above with a flying stomp, although the risk of missing the target and ending up at his mercy is always real.
It is not better in the boss fights, one for each stage. Some are generally nice - the fourth, in particular, also because we appreciate that Vacuum Clip Studio completely redesigned Xanatos' robotic gargoyles - while others are a disaster: the second boss can be defeated simply by hitting it at the beginning of the fight, without performs a single move or attack until death.
It's incredible that Gargoyles was such a cutting-edge game in many ways in 1995, but it's even more incredible that Vacuum Clip Studio had the opportunity to fix what was wrong to relaunch a beloved brand and didn't take advantage of it in the slightest. And there were other things that could have been improved, from barely sketched narrative in the intermediate scenes to the extra content, practically absent.
The Californian developer simply repainted the original game, adding some modern features such as fast rewind which serves above all to make it more playable and avoid the frustration of a control system that needed to be reviewed and corrected and that, instead, remained as it was. Fidelity and nostalgia are fine, but this is too much.
Conclusions
Price 14,99 € Holygamerz.com 4.0 Readers (5) 7.3 your voteGargoyles Remastered is a wasted opportunity. As fans of Disney's unforgettable animated series, we are disappointed by this revival that nicely updates the look of the Genesis original but, on the other hand, does not solve all the problems that already plagued the gameplay in 1995. A true exercise in Frustration , which also lasts very little, and has not learned anything from other quality remasters that we have played in recent years. What a great shame.
PRO
- The new look is colorful and true to the cartoon.
- Fast rewind helps a lot
AGAINST
- You end up being generous in an hour.
- Unacceptable control system
- Disney's Gargoyles deserved much better treatment
