Retro Weekends Episode 63: Actraiser

"I really enjoyed quite a few aspects of this game, it really does sing to both platforming and strategy markets and the strategy didn't bog you down too much unless you were aiming for every last piece of health (which you could choose not to do). The music and graphics in the game are excellent, as is the presentation, with each little town having its own story. The game is pretty much perfect for the time and there's few criticisms that can be leveled at it, I mean, you can't please everyone all the time but this game makes a bloody good attempt of it."

"This is a great game that is very unique. You've got this odd amalgamation of platforming and strategy elements here, and I think both aspects of the game are done well and elevate each other as you get to not only fight demons, but watch as the world improves and the people become more assertive, this really adds to what can be done in regards to worldbuilding. The strategy sections are not the most in-depth but I think they work quite well and honestly you don't really want it to be too complicated for this sort of game anyway. Even so there's still some stuff to learn here in order to get the populations up and there's elements to experiment with. The platforming action is done well and there's some nice layouts, the bosses are memorable too. Graphically its great, and the music's pretty good too with lots of memorable orchestral tracks. Definitely a classic early SNES game that you would've wanted to have picked up at the time."