 Solstice for NES was released in 1990 and remains one of the most frustrating and difficult, but rewarding games for that system. It's a puzzle platformer that utilizes an isometric viewpoint, for better or for worse. It's essentially a trial and error game, with the added bonus that, everything kills you. The developer's software creations, who you might know on the Super Nintendo from PLOCK, Maximum Carnage, and of course Ken Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball, tried again with the Solstice format, this time calling it Equinox, although in Japan it has the title Solstice 2. This time around you play as Glendal, the son of Shadaks the Wizard, who's the main character in the NES game. Shadaks has been imprisoned by his apprentice, the sorceress Sonia, so his son Glendal has to venture through seven kingdoms in order to get to her ice fortress to rescue his dad. You progress by going through each dungeon looking for twelve blue orbs. Once you've got them all, it summons a boss. Defeat the boss and move on to the next dungeon, through this world map here where you can run into all sorts of other enemies and characters. Each of the eight dungeons has a new weapon you can find, you can start out with just a simple knife projectile, but eventually you can get axes, swords, and a mace, all in projectile form. You also earn a new spell in each dungeon, everything from a slow spell which slows down every enemy in the room to healing spells to regular damage spells. There's one hit deaths here, die and start the room over, die until your health meter in the lower left is gone and you start the entire dungeon over. The good thing is that once you get rid of all the enemies and collect all the items from a room, and exit safely, they don't come back. It should be noted that there's also multiple entrances and exits for each dungeon, so once you've completed collecting orbs in one area, it's time to go out onto the world map and find another entrance. You can rotate the map using the L and R buttons which is handy. Once you defeat the dungeon guardian, a path will open up on the world map and you move on to the next area. Just like Brain Lord, which I looked at a few weeks ago, Equinox is an adventure game where the meat and potatoes of the gameplay is in the puzzles. There's keys you have to find, there's boulders to move, doors to unlock, hidden rooms, you get the idea. Equinox, the enemies themselves are puzzles in that you have to find the right angle to shoot at them, depending on the room and depending on their weak spot. But unfortunately, Equinox isn't always that intuitive. Sure there are some straightforward rooms where you just kill all the enemies to open a door or to get the orb, and man that can be a chore since it takes like a million hits to kill some of these guys. But sometimes it's like what, I can't move other blocks but I can move this one? Yeah, there's some trial and error here. So you gotta take the time to try and move every block to figure out what to do next. Equinox is one of those games. Normally I'd be fine with that, the puzzles here aren't too bad, but what can be bad is this 3D isometric viewpoint. It can be really frustrating to navigate this game because just like games like Landstalk or for Psygogenesis, there's a lot of platforming here and that can lead to a lot of cheap deaths because it can be tough to get a good handle on the deaths of your jumps. And sometimes even judging deaths just to turn a corner. If you even do so much as touch a spike, you're dead. The layout is kinda tile based but your movement isn't, and that sucks. This game's structure is at least forgiving, since every time you leave a dungeon, the game will save your progress, and you can head out onto the world map and fight some enemies to get your health and magic replenished. But I mean, check out this section here where you have to create a makeshift bridge to jump over to the other side, ugh. Or this part here where you have to jump diagonally, come on. The game even deliberately uses its perspective to try and trick you, ugh. The further you get into this game, the larger the dungeons, but unfortunately there's no map. This game really could have used a map of some kind. And like I mentioned earlier, this game can be such a slog because it takes so many hits to kill enemies, like these guys here who you can only hit with their backs turned. Sure you can use the slow spell so you can do more damage, but there's only so much magic you can use. Because of this, at times this game can get grindy and actually kinda boring. The visual design of Equinox is, as you can see, kinda weird. To the game's credit, there's not another 16-bit game out there that looks like this one. It's just the world map here. What am I, in hyper zone land? Just goofy looking. Plus you can talk to guardians blocking the next area and oh man I think I'm gonna be sick. The music is suitably odd as well. What, am I playing populous? And the boss music is really strange. I feel like I'm trapped in a nightclub that Stefan recommended. But the NES game had really strange music too. So it's at least in step with its predecessor in that regard. So yeah, Equinox is okay. I think it's better than the NES game. It's a true adventure game where you're collecting weapons and spells, solving puzzles, moving from room to room, and it can be pretty fun at times. Look at this boss fight here. What the hell is that thing? Unfortunately boss fights adhere to the same logic as any other room in the game. One hit and you start over. That sucks. On the other hand, the puzzles here are pretty nifty. Sometimes the game has you thinking one way but you have to do something completely different. Like okay, I just shoved this block over here and I can't make that jump. But instead you can jump onto the door and get the orb that way. That's pretty cool. But man, this game can be frustrating for the wrong reasons because of the angled platforming, because of how long it takes to defeat basic run-of-the-mill enemies, because the game hides blue orbs from you in hidden rooms that are almost impossible to find so you can't progress with the game. It's so annoying. Still, I do think Equinox is unique enough in the Super Nintendo library that it's worth checking out at least once to see if it's your thing. But if you're looking for a puzzle-heavy adventure game, I would recommend Brain Lord instead. Equinox is a case of a game where, despite all the positives, the negatives are just a little too overbearing to stick with this game for very long.