Gargoyles

[Melf]

Seeing the cartoons of our youth tampered with is something that makes many people raise an eybrow. Luckily, cartoons fared pretty well when it came to games, and the Genesis had a decent track record of providing quality versions of animated hits. Aladdin and Tiny Toon Adventures come to mind, but there was also a cartridge version of Buena Vista Interactive's popular TV series Gargoyles. Combining platforming and action elements, it was quite faithful to its source material and even managed to overcome some serious design flaws. Staff writer Tom Briggs gave it the once-over, so read his full review (http://www.sega-16.com/2007/07/gargoyles/) to see how it fared!

[j_factor]

I loved that show back in the day. I used to watch it religiously.

Pretty good review, except gargoyles don't really have anything to do with Norse mythology.

[Joe Redifer]

Wow. Looking at the screenshots, this game was dark and hardly had any colors. I bet they saved a lot of memory by having all of that black space.

[GelmiR]

edit: never mind

[megabomberman]

Was a great cartoon in day, well for the first few seasons anyway before they went off the rails.

The game looks like a typical "c" to jump "b" to swipe "a" to do something (not really useful) special.

I think these are the type of games I will start looking for when my collection hits around 350 or 400, these type of generic, typical, but still decent platformers are all over the 16 bit era, frankly they lie just above Ea games and rubbish on the want list, once again mainly because of their breed like rabbits nature.

Good review though Tom, had everything.

[Genesis Knight]

IIRC correctly this game doesn't work with...what was it...Nomad? Or maybe the Majesco Genesis 3? I think it's the latter; can anyone verify?

[InternalPrimate]

Pretty good review, except gargoyles don't really have anything to do with Norse mythology.

Anything that refrences to Vikings and Scandinavian culture I immediately associate with Norse mythology :D

[VinnyT]

IIRC correctly this game doesn't work with...what was it...Nomad? Or maybe the Majesco Genesis 3? I think it's the latter; can anyone verify?

I'm pretty sure it was the Genesis 3, because Gargoyles is too bad-ass for a hockey puck.

[Aarzak]

I read that it doesn't work on the Genny 3 because the game utilized a glitch on the Genesis hardware that was corrected with the release of the Genny 3. That "glitch" only affected that game.

Anyways, decent game. Never had heard of "Buena Vista Interactive" though. If it were my guess I would've thought the game was developed by Virgin of "Aladdin" fame since it has that smooth animation, control and fast gameplay.

And yes, the game is quite dark in color palette.

Was anyone else surprised that this game came out out of nowhere in 1995, when Genny releases were already few and far inbetween?

[Gamerforlife]

It's nice to see someone actually write a review for this totally ignored game. Unfortunately, it is not well researched and there's a few things I disagree with.

First of all, it is implied that Mickey Mania was a Genesis exclusive when it was actually released on the S-NES as well. You probably should have just mentioned Castle of Illusion instead, which was a classic Mickey Mouse game that WAS a Sega exclusive(along with it's sequel World of Illusion)

It's worth noting, that the S-NES had some great Disney titles like Capcom's version of Aladdin(which was a bit truer to the character since he wasn't this sword swinging warrior like he is in the Genesis game). Plus, games like Disney's Magical Quest. Capcom already had a reputation for good NES games on the 8-bit Nintendo with games like Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, etc and continued it on the S-NES. Plus, you had games like The Lion King and the afore-mentioned Mickey Mania being available on both consoles.

In my opinion, I'd say BOTH consoles were home to the best Disney games of the era. Best of ANY era though? Hard to say, those Kingdom Hearts games were pretty impressive(despite a mostly ridiculous story and unnecessary Final Fantasy cameos).

Second of all, the facts regarding the Gargoyles storyline are innacurate. The castle was not gone in 1994, it was rebuilt on top of the high-rise Manhattan building. Without the castle, the curse would not have been broken.

And they weren't exactly cursed by the vikings. They were cursed by ONE sorcerer, who acted of his own will(and very soon after regretted what he had done)

Personally, I don't think there was anything cheesy or far-fetched about it. It was a spell that shouldn't have been broken, but the sorcerer never took into account the technology of the future, or that someone with a vast amount of wealth would actually try and "rise a castle above the clouds".

Anyway, it sounds like a decent enough game to be worth getting for a low price from your review. As a huge fan of the show(one of the best animated shows of all time I think), I may have to check it out once I've already acquired all the "must haves" for my collection

[InternalPrimate]

It's nice to see someone actually write a review for this totally ignored game. Unfortunately, it is not well researched and there's a few things I disagree with.

First of all, it is implied that Mickey Mania was a Genesis exclusive when it was actually released on the S-NES as well. You probably should have just mentioned Castle of Illusion instead, which was a classic Mickey Mouse game that WAS a Sega exclusive(along with it's sequel World of Illusion)

It's worth noting, that the S-NES had some great Disney titles like Capcom's version of Aladdin(which was a bit truer to the character since he wasn't this sword swinging warrior like he is in the Genesis game). Plus, games like Disney's Magical Quest. Capcom already had a reputation for good NES games on the 8-bit Nintendo with games like Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, etc and continued it on the S-NES. Plus, you had games like The Lion King and the afore-mentioned Mickey Mania being available on both consoles.

In my opinion, I'd say BOTH consoles were home to the best Disney games of the era. Best of ANY era though? Hard to say, those Kingdom Hearts games were pretty impressive(despite a mostly ridiculous story and unnecessary Final Fantasy cameos).

Second of all, the facts regarding the Gargoyles storyline are innacurate. The castle was not gone in 1994, it was rebuilt on top of the high-rise Manhattan building. Without the castle, the curse would not have been broken.

And they weren't exactly cursed by the vikings. They were cursed by ONE sorcerer, who acted of his own will(and very soon after regretted what he had done)

Personally, I don't think there was anything cheesy or far-fetched about it. It was a spell that shouldn't have been broken, but the sorcerer never took into account the technology of the future, or that someone with a vast amount of wealth would actually try and "rise a castle above the clouds".

Anyway, it sounds like a decent enough game to be worth getting for a low price from your review. As a huge fan of the show(one of the best animated shows of all time I think), I may have to check it out once I've already acquired all the "must haves" for my collection

Just a quick response (I just got back from a cruise and I am pooped!), I love the SNES. I'm a fan of the 16-bit period as a whole, but this is a GENESIS site, so I'm going to talk about all of the great GENESIS Disney games. Otherwise, it's cool that you enjoyed the show, and thanks for reading the review!

[Gamerforlife]

Yes well, you stated that the best Disney games of the era resided on the Genesis and mentioned Mickey Mania and Aladdin as if to say you needed a Genesis to play them, when Mickey Mania was also on the S-NES.

It just didn't sound right to me. Plus, the inaccurate summary of the Gargoyles storyline. Just felt like I had to point that stuff out.

[jesus.arnold]

I've been playing a bit of this game recently, its actually far better than I expected it would be, though certainly no classic. I think that a lot of people on here might find that if they played this game they might like it more than they expect.


I think these are the type of games I will start looking for when my collection hits around 350 or 400, these type of generic, typical, but still decent platformers are all over the 16 bit era, frankly they lie just above Ea games and rubbish on the want list, once again mainly because of their breed like rabbits nature.Its not really actually that generic, there's a lot of different moves and the game play contains a lot of climbing


Yes well, you stated that the best Disney games of the era resided on the Genesis and mentioned Mickey Mania and Aladdin as if to say you needed a Genesis to play them, when Mickey Mania was also on the S-NES.Seeing as both Aladdin and Mickey Mania were pretty shit on SNES it becomes a moot point.

[bohokii]

I loved that show back in the day. I used to watch it religiously.

Pretty good review, except gargoyles don't really have anything to do with Norse mythology.

the whole series revolves around oberon titania and their children puck,banshee,odin,the weird sisters

so you are right but for odin its pretty light its not like thor or valkyries appear ever

then the crazy easter island alien

loved that show even though the goliath chronicals went a bit off but that was better than a straight mandatory second season cancel that is known with most of the disney cartoons

teh only memorable thing about the gargoyles game is the abracadabra code

[Jesse813]

Its an OK w/ nice graphics but the controls totally suck!

[jesus.arnold]

teh only memorable thing about the gargoyles game is the abracadabra codeI think that's a little unfair, at the very least it has some of the most impressive animation and lighting on the Mega Drive.

[Noiman]

Great atmospheric game, but a bit long to beat in one sit-through