 SEGA GAAAAAAA DRUNK It's time we finally got BEYOND OASIS with BEYOND OASIS, also known as the story of Thor on Mega Drive. You play as a treasure hunter named Prince Oli, the game however does not let you in on If he is fabulous or Alibaba, or however the song from Aladdin goes. He discovers a very gold armlet that can summon all sorts of cool elemental magic stuff, but by finding this armlet, another silver armlet is now destined to be found by someone else. So while the gold armlet does cool magical elemental stuff, the silver armlet is nothing but evil in chaos and destruction and all that stuff. So you have to hunt down whoever has the silver armlet. As you can see, this is a rare top-down adventure game that the Genesis didn't really have very many of, and that's too bad because the developer Agent knocked it out of the freaking park on this one. This is a fantastic game. I know the easy comparison here is linked to the past, but the action here is closer to a top-down beat-em-up style game, closer to Secret of Mana, just without much of a leveling system. There is kind of one here for your magic that you eventually learn, but it's pretty dialed back, so don't expect much role-playing game stuff here. There's a straight adventure-style gameplay with puzzles, different weapons, and unlike most Zelda games of the time, you can actually jump and duck and dash, double-tap the d-pad, and you'll run, hit the attack button, and you'll unleash a stronger attack. Man, I love that. Forward, back, forward, and attacking is another special move. Really, there's all sorts of attacks here too that make this game stand out compared to the typical adventure genre fare, and make it play more like a beat-em-up. The elemental magic stuff here also makes this game unique. You pick up these spirits as you progress through the game, for water, fire, darkness, and earth, or life, or plants, or whatever. The catch is that, for example, you can only summon the water spirit if you're near water, or the fire spirit if you're around even a campfire. To control them as a bit odd, you press the A button once for a certain spell, you can double-tap A quickly for another spell, and you can press all three A, B, and C buttons to make the spirit go away entirely. Or you can just wait until the magic meter over there on the left is empty. The elemental magic is key in solving puzzles and unlocking new parts of the map, like the obvious example here of your fire dude melting this ice block here to access a new area. There's more complex stuff than that, but I wouldn't say that aspect is the game's strength. The combat system in Beyond Oasis, with its special moves and fighting game-styled commands, are really fun and break up the monotony, and the magic system is interesting too. Of course, I also have to mention how great this game looks. I mean, you can see the video here, so I shouldn't have to expound too much on the excellent pixel art and sprite work. One flaw of Beyond Oasis is that this game is pretty dang short, but it at least makes up for it by providing some secret challenge areas, like a dungeon a hundred floors deep. It can be challenging, but you're rewarded with the game's most powerful weapon. There's also kind of a platforming challenge that rewards you with infinite bombs, so thankfully there's a little bit here beyond the main narrative. Beyond Oasis got a sequel, or more accurately a prequel on the Sega Saturn called Legend of Oasis, and all I can say is that if you like Beyond Oasis, you'll love Legend of Oasis too. It's the same kind of action with a lot of new stuff added. So yeah, if you grew up with the Super Nintendo and you love stuff like Link to the Past or Illusion of Gaia or Soul Blazer or Secret of Mana or any of those top-down action-style games, and you missed out on Beyond Oasis, you missed out Big Time, and I strongly recommend rectifying that as soon as you can. Beyond Oasis is available on the original Wii Virtual Console, as well as Sonic's Ultimate Genesis collection available for PS3 and 360, and it's made its way to Steam as well. So yeah, Beyond Oasis isn't just Sega's attempt at a Zelda-style game, it's something that holds up completely on its own, and it's well worth playing today.