Anet Futatabi

[Melf]

Sequels are always anticipated, but some turn out to be less than expected. Such was the case with Wolf Team's Anet Futatabi, the third game in the trilogy surrounding Anet Myers and Earnest Evans. Expectations were high, but heads were hung low upon release. Care to taste our disappointment? Read our full review.

[David J.]

Good review, but I'd give it an 8 because I'm not picky and I love beatemups.

[j_factor]

It's not like Earnest Evans was exactly phenomenal either. I'd say El Viento was just a fluke.

[Melf]

I loved the effects in EE, but the character sprite was just horrendous. What the heck were they thinking?

[David J.]

I dunno, but El viento was the shit. I already know who'd make a perfect Annet.

[Dartagnan1083]

Interestingly enough.

Motoi Sakuraba has his own website.
Perhaps this is Melf's chance to score an interview with a japanese composer.

http://www.cocoebiz.com/sakuraba/

[goldenband]

Yeah, this game kinda sucks. Pretty cutscenes and a red book soundtrack are fine, but the gameplay is lousy, buggy, and way too easy.

The magic system doesn't really work, since the enemies don't pursue you at all. Since there's no time limit, you can basically defeat all the lower-level enemies by keeping your distance until your magic powers up to the dragon spell which kills everything on screen. (Sure, it takes a while, but you can just set your controller down, go have a cup of tea or a wee, and come back in three minutes to find yourself fully charged. Don't worry, the game won't attack you or anything!)

Or if that doesn't appeal, then some combination of throws and sliding kicks will account for most everybody; the only tricky ones are the spinning guys. And even on Hard, there are power-ups everywhere so if you mess up, no biggie, there's a Diet Coke cached in that ancient column. (What is the difference between Easy and Hard in this game, anyway? I couldn't spot anything.)

The boss fights are super-simplistic, and most of them can be killed by dropping to a different horizontal plane and waiting for the right moment in their attack cycle. That kind of thing can be fun, but here it's just mechanical and tedious because, again, the bosses don't play aggressively -- they just do their thing and wait for you to get in the way. The last boss is a little different but basically just a battle of attrition, since you hurt him more than he hurts you.

Also, there's some sprite priority issue going on, since parts of Anet/Annet/Anetto/Annatto/Turmeric* kept disappearing, like something straight out of SMS Double Dragon in two-player mode. Tolerable in 1988, but not too impressive for a Mega CD game.

This could have been a good game if there were more enemies, special moves, two-player simultaneous action, a time limit, and/or a magic system that makes sense. But as it stands, without the cutscenes and soundtrack, there's practically nothing of value left.

I'll take Earnest Evans over this any day! That game is goofy, bizarre, and sort of broken, but at least it's fun and fairly creative.

*It'd be nice if the Internet could agree on a Romanization of her name.

[QuickSciFi]

OMG! I din't even know Earnest Evans had anything to do with El Viento. And yet, the gameplay tells you all. That's awesome. I need to try this trilogy out!