Vist Genki!

Format: Mega Drive
From: Masaya
Year of Release: 1991
Onscreen Language: Japanese
Campaign 1 - Banner 2

 
Devil Hunter Yoko
 




















and the Seven Bells
N/A

A really poor 'Valis' clone.

There are no story screens to explain the plot between stages, just a short animation at the start and then no stop dull action from there on.

You control Yoko. She can jump, attack and, well ...jump. She can make a gold circle, if you hold down the attack button, that can do more damage but it takes too long to pull off. The game is made up of five very long scenes and it's all ordinary platforming stuff; kill monsters, avoid flames, beat the boss etc.

The only new feature Devil Hunter Yoko has is your energy bar. If you take a hit the bar drops very low but will slowly replenish if you remain safe. This can make the feeble boss encounters even more difficult as you have to try that extra bit harder to stay out of harm.

The first thing that will strike you are the graphics. They're awful. The sprites are tiny, the backgrounds and surroundings are bland and the enemies are nothing special. The sound effects are worse, just basic and flat. The music, however, is actually quite good, possibly the high point in this below average game. Finally the level design is just plain dull. After a reasonably interesting first stage they all start to look and play the same. Lots of deadly water and firey caves.

Even if you wanted to you'd be hard pushed to finish the game. The difficulty level is quite high to start with. Add to that Yoko's tricky controls, that make even easy jumps frustratingly tough, and a tight supply of lives and continues and you'll be lucky to see past level three, if you could persevere that far to start with. Dull, standard, bland.

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