Sleeper of the Week: Demon's Crest (SNES)
Today we have the third game in a series that generally gets roundly ignored by all but a handful of gamers, the Gargoyle’s trilogy. Sadly there’s no actual name for the trilogy so I made that up and it sounds awful, but the trilogy includes Gargoyle’s Quest (Game Boy), Gargoyle’s Quest II (NES), and our focus today, Demon’s Crest for the SNES. All three games give you control of the famous enemy gargoyle Firebrand from Capcom’s legendary action series Ghosts N’ Goblins. You’ve probably seen Firebrand in the Ghosts N’ Goblins series tossing little whirlwinds at you. But suddenly for this series, Firebrand is a good gargoyle, and it’s a whole new game!
The story of Demon’s Crest is a story of revenge. As Firebrand, you fought your way valiantly through a demon civil war and ended up taking control of six crests giving unlimited power. But during your fights you were mortally wounded and a nasty little backstabbing demon stole the crests from you while you were injured and now it’s up to you to kick his ass all the way back to hell. That’s right kids, learn vengeance!
When you start the game, Firebrand has already earned the basic Crest of Fire. However, you can add additional sub-weapons to it by beating levels and eventually completing the crest and gaining back power. You can gain each of the first five Crests back: Fire (which you start with) Earth, Air, Water and Time. I honestly haven’t beat the game so I don’t know if you get the sixth Crest back, but I’d assume so. With each Crest that you retrieve, you gain the ability to morph to a new type of gargoyle with different attack styles, movement and powers. Essentially, Firebrand can (and must) become five different playable characters. The Earth gargoyle for example can run at high speed and break stone statues, and can fire a blast of energy shooting along the ground as well as a normal attack. The main Fire form of Firebrand can instead shoot fireballs, blast through stone blocks, use tornadoes and claws, and blast demon fire.
In addition to all the special forms, Firebrand is very versatile. As a gargoyle, he can fly of course, but he’s heavy so he doesn’t stay in the air for long. Instead, you can glide for short distances, hover in the air and latch onto walls and ledges. You’ll need to use every nuance of Firebrand’s controls to really explore most levels of the game, so be sure to master it all! You can also use special items and even shop in shops in the game, as well as headbutting enemies…even in the air! Firebrand is one capable gargoyle! The game controls very well and you can make some very detailed movements. When you beat levels, you even fly around with Mode 7 and explore a fairly large overworld similar to Actraiser II or Final Fantasy III.
Musically, the game is classic SNES. Don’t expect anything stunning, but it’s solid music, very well-suited to the game. The graphics are very nice and smooth as well. The sprites are very well-detailed and creative. I’d be willing to bet that the same artists and animators that did the Ghosts N’ Goblins series also made Demon’s Crest, as it has a very distinctive look to it. With seven main levels to explore, Demon’s Crest is a fairly sizable game. Don’t expect a 60 hour quest or anything, but it’s a good game for an action platformer! If you can find a copy, go check it out! Copies eBay from $5-25 depending on your luck, and that’s for at most a boxed copy. Here’s some images to tantalize you with!
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Firebrand aka "The Red Blaze" who has won the war against the Demons to keep Demons and Humans at peace finally...
Originally Posted by maxlords
I replaced my rough ex-rental one with the minty one ya sold me too, otherwise I'd send it back to ya.... :/
