Game of the Day 1/30/2016: Arkista's Ring

[celerystalker]

If there was a solid middle ground between Gauntlet and Lolo, Arkista's Ring would live there. It's a top-down action/maze game in which you control the elf named Christine from the land of Arkista on her quest to retrieve the elves' treasures from the evil shogun, including the titular ring. There are 31 unique levels, each roughly two screens in size, and in each you must kill enough enemies to cause the key to appear, retrieve it, and locate the exit.

There are quite a few powerups along the way, which grant you superior strength and distance for your bow and arrow, a longer life bar, magic attacks, health potions, a mirror that lets you take no damage from projectiles, and more, and they are dropped at random by enemies and bosses, excepting, of course, Arkista's Ring, which is only dropped by the Shogun the first time you beat him.

The first time... yeah... The thing is, to complete the game for its final ending, you must clear it four times. The enemies get a tad faster and take extra damage after the first loop, but playing the same 31 stages through four times is a bit much in my book for one sitting. Still, that first loop is pretty fun and challenging, even if the second feels actually easier once you have the ring, which restores health with movement, so it's not a totally insane chore. I think it'dve probably been just fine at two loops, but at least it keeps a brisk pace, and actually has a pretty catchy soundtrack.

I like this one a lot, and even though I usually only stick with it for a loop or two every couple of years, I did enjoy blasting all the way through eventually. Played it?

[Emperor Megas]

I just checked and I do own it. Woo! Never touched it before and I doubt I would have for years had I not read anything about it. These topics are really helping me decide which games to play, which (as silly as it sounds) is often a problem for me.