| Platform Reviewed | Sega Saturn |
| Genre | First Person 3D RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| Multiplayer Value | None |
| Length | Moderate |
| Difficulty | Moderate |
| Skills Required | Hand-Eye, Inventory Maintenance, Puzzle Solving |
| Interface Devices | Sega Saturn Joypad |
| Interface Design | Adequate |
| Programming | Almost Adequate to Adequate |
| Game Design and Playability | Good basic design, but implemented less desirably |
| Type Of Fun | Hack and Slash corridor crawl with overland monster bashing |
| Replay Value | High because of random world generation |
| Overall Value | Moderate |
| Quality | Low to Moderate |
| The Best | Novel 'over the shoulder' 3D view of main character, moody landscape, world generator |
| The Worst | Slow, jerky 3D action, somewhat poor digitization, the Hero has had one too many doughnuts to look truly adventurous. The actor looks more like the "want fries with that?' type than the "I'll save you my princess!" type. O.K. so I'm picky. |
| How much would I be willing to pay for this | 20 bucks. Good discount acquisition. |
Description:
Virtual Hydlide is a First Person, Over-The-Shoulder, Fantasy Role Playing Game. Standard plot includes "Kill The (Fill in blank), and Save The World".
Story:
Kill the (Monster, Vampire, Evil Wizard, Zombies, Dragon, Etc.) and free the land of the Fairies from perpetual gloom and tyranny. Great to see such an original story plot in a game.
Review:
Great idea for a viewpoint in a 3D game, wonderful to have a world creator for replay value, and interesting to use digitized graphics. Other than that, this is grade C work all the way here. The graphics are slow and jerky, the actor overweight, the monsters indistinct, and the interface clunky. Decent budget buy, it is worth a tour for, say 15 to 20 bucks, but do not pay full price. Extremely unsatisfactory realization for what was obviously a very ambitious design. If only this were done well, it would have been great. Pity.
Jennifer Diane Reitz is a Game Designer and Computer Artist, and one of the founders of Happy Puppy. She is the creator of numerous games and software products, including Boppin' , Shark Chums, Elsewhere, and many others. She has worked for such companies as Activision, Sculptured Software, Epyx, SRI, and Electronic Arts, and founded Accursed Toys. She has been active in the computer gaming industry since it's earliest days. She considers games to be works of artistic merit and achievement, and views computer entertainment as the most important media of our era.