 SEGA DRUNK! Welcome to another edition of Where the Hell Is This Game Been and Why Haven't I Heard Of It Before. This time it's Flink for Sega Mega Drive. Its release was scheduled for Sega Genesis in North America, but it was cancelled. Sega CD did eventually get this one here, which I'll get to a bit later. But this is your standard 2D platformer. You jump on enemies' heads, you collect stuff, you slide down slopes, you pick up boulders and throw them at enemies, you can stun enemies and spin them out of existence just like in Mickey's Magical Quest. Okay the core gameplay here is pretty dang derivative, but holy crap just look at this game. The visuals here are incredible, the sprite work, the colors, the scaling, the deep backgrounds, the boss sprites. Check out this level here where you're bouncing on lily pads trying to stay above water while serpents fly in from the horizon with fish jumping up trying to get you. It is really tough, especially when you're distracted by the impressively smooth scaling on the serpents. And have I mentioned this game is freaking gorgeous looking? I can't get over that this is a Mega Drive game. So what is he hanging off of here? Are you serious? Moving on. The story is boiler prayed adventure stuff, Imagica Island was peaceful and happy until an evil wizard called Wicked Wainwright, no not that Wainwright, shows up and captures the 4 Wisemen of Imagica to take control of the island and of course since it's an adventure game there's crystals involved, why wouldn't there be? Blink must recover the crystals which would unlock a gateway to Wainwright Strike Zone I mean Lair, where they would fight in a final showdown. But yeah as I said earlier this is your standard platformer and once you get past the visuals and the music for that matter some people might be turned off by how basic this game is at its core. It really is just a bigger, slower Mario clone at first and the controls are the usual stuff. A performs actions, B is jump and C performs spells. The thing that's a little irritating is that you can't just press A to pick stuff up, you have to press A and down. Also your forward movement is tricky to get used to as well because your speed is based on if you're moving uphill or downhill. That's kind of a pain in the ass. What helps set Flink apart though is that you can create spells using a combination of 3 different items you collect throughout the game and the spell system is regulated by a magic meter in the upper left. You collect feathers, rings, leaves and other stuff, head to the menu and combine them to create up to 7 different spells like bombs, lightning, creating platforms or even summoning a demon. You can also create keys to unlock certain treasure chests that can't otherwise be opened. This aspect of the game isn't that much in depth but it is a nice addition to what is otherwise very dry gameplay. As I said earlier, Flink was only released for the Mega Drive. North America didn't get this game until it was released for Sega CD where it was called The Misadventures of Flink. But what's strange is that the two versions are nearly identical outside of the obvious upgrade in the music department but there's hardly any changes in the game's visuals at all. This was also ported to the Amiga 32 for what it's worth. So yeah, Flink is an interesting play through if only because when's the last time you saw a 16 bit Sega game that looked as good. It's kind of funny how at the time this game got average reviews and derided the visuals for being too cutesy but now in 2018 we're far enough away from that time that we can admire the fantastic pixel art and shading and scaling for what it is. Yeah, the gameplay is very derivative and a bit slow and clunky but it is still a worthwhile play through even if you have to emulate this one.