Retro Review – MediEvil: Resurrection

<p>Sony had a host of amazing first party games on the original PlayStation and while the PlayStation 4 does have some heavy hitters&comma; my best memories are with their original creations&period; One of their creations was a little title called <em>MediEvil<&sol;em> which was released in October of 1998 and garnered a few sequels&period; One of the sequels aptly named <em>MediEvil II<&sol;em> was released on the original PlayStation as a follow up&comma; then in 2005 the last <em>MediEvil<&sol;em> game was released for the PSP&comma; <em>MediEvil&colon; Resurrection<&sol;em>&period; This PSP exclusive is a remake of the original title&comma; which was a great idea&semi; <em>MediEvil<&sol;em> on the PlayStation is a ridiculously difficult game&period; <em>Dark Souls<&sol;em> difficult for me&comma; especially since I&&num;8217&semi;ve been babied by newer titles&period; Had games kept up with the same difficulty I&&num;8217&semi;m sure I would have been able to breeze through it&comma; however my time with the original was filled with rage and sadness&period; So props to Sony for letting me play an updated version that is a bit easier all around&comma; both in visuals and controls&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story is a more fleshed out &lpar;pun intended&rpar; version of the PlayStation version&period; Gallowmere is the land that you must save as a resurrected Sir Daniel Fortesque&comma; a cowardly knight who has been turned into a hero over time&period; King Peregrine had a sorcerer in his court named Zarok&comma; who was found conducting experiments on the bodies of the dead&period; When the King discovers this his banishes him from Gallowmere&period; Time passes and Gallowmere experiences a time of peace until Zarok returns with an army of demons&period; Luckily Sir Daniel kills Zarok before ultimately succumbing to his wounds&period; One hundred of years of peace envelops the land&comma; and then Zarok returns with hordes of the undead he has raised&period; Oddly enough Zarok accidentally raises Sir Daniel and gives him a little gift of a genie in his head&period; A genies named Al-Zalam that also seeks vengeance against Zarok&period; Your quest is to kill Zarok again&&num;8211&semi;or die again trying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117512" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117512" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117512" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;25235147&sol;Medi&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;MediEvil&colon; Resurrection - Sony&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117512" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>MediEvil&colon; Resurrection<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Sony&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls are about one-thousand times better than the PlayStation version&period; On the PSP they placed movement onto the D-pad and the small thumb-stick&comma; using the thumb-stick makes the game so much less difficult&period; On the original all I had was a D-pad and you just get murdered if your enemy is at a 45 degree angle to you&period; In the new one I can slaughter everyone and barely take any damage&period; Circle allows you to jump whenever you need to hop over deadly water and other threats&period; Triangle is a run attack that is pretty useless&period; X and Square are attack button&period; You can attack with swords or certain weapons that degrade over time&comma; or if you&&num;8217&semi;re really bad you can attack people with your right arm&period; The camera can make this game tricky seeing as the level design is bland and things can often look so similar that you&&num;8217&semi;ll get lost&period; I found myself getting lost over and over again&period; If the camera gets all funky then you can press the Right Trigger to reset it behind you&period; I did find many parts of this little escapade through Gallowmere to be repetitive&semi; I mean how many Runes can there be lying about that I need to find&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics&comma; music and voice-over quality surprised me&period; When you first fire up the game you are greeted with a lengthy narration of what has gone on before&period; His voice is great and fits the mood of this game perfectly&comma; even Al-Zalam is a blast to listen to and he gives you hints when you miss items in a certain area&period; I always forget how powerful the little PSP is&comma; when the cut-scenes start up I&&num;8217&semi;m always surprised at how great they look on this little portable system&period; The in-game action is a bit muddy but it&&num;8217&semi;s leaps and bounds better than the original on the PlayStation&period; I can find my way around the cemetery and other maps&comma; but even with the upgraded graphics I do still get lost frequently&period; I get lost everywhere but the actual wilderness&comma; it makes no sense&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t even get me started on the one way streets&period; I digress&comma; the game looks and feels great and I had an amazing time revisiting my late teens and the improved graphics sure didn&&num;8217&semi;t hurt&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117517" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117517" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117517" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;26002434&sol;medievil&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;MediEvil&colon; Resurrection - Sony&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"543" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117517" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>MediEvil&colon; Resurrection<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Sony&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This game is hilarious&period; They really don&&num;8217&semi;t develop games like this anymore&period; There are just so many little touches everywhere that add so much humor and character to this world&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve yet to play a game on current gen systems and actually laugh from the clever writing&period; Games are so gritty and depressing now with less quips and clever puns&period; Now it&&num;8217&semi;s mostly just blood and guts&period; Every now and then though I would like a game that makes me giggle and laugh and one that isn&&num;8217&semi;t a <em>LEGO<&sol;em> game&period; Those games no longer exist from the big developers and publishers and it&&num;8217&semi;s just sad&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m glad that I have older games to fall back on that will allow me to relive some of the more lighthearted era of gaming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I enjoyed my time in Gallowmere&period; This has always been one of the most unique IP&&num;8217&semi;s in my opinion and I just can&&num;8217&semi;t fathom why Sony won&&num;8217&semi;t resurrect it &lpar;Haha&rpar;&period; If Sony wants to jump back into this series they could go one of two ways with it&period; They could concoct a completely new <em>Dark Souls<&sol;em> style of franchise or they could replace their failed Knack as mascot and replace him with Sir Dan with a humorous fantasy tale of good versus evil&period; Either way I would buy the game&period; The quirkiness of this series should make any gamer take a look at it&period; This series is part of gaming history that developers and publishers seem to want to forget&period; They have sucked the fun and creativity out of developers&comma; thankfully Swery and Suda 51 still exist to give us amazing new IP&&num;8217&semi;s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;