ActRaiser

Formula still works today.

A neat mix of sidescrolling combat and city building. Rare combo at that time, and a lot of fun.

A decently solid and well produced action-platformer that borrows most of its charm from the silly little city builder tacked onto it.

Both sections of the game were pretty unremarkable. The platform action sections had really stiff controls and some really lame bosses to go with it. The town building had no real lose state and was ultimately a test of patience, not to mention building felt cumbersome with how the demons constantly invaded you. This is an ambitious game that succeeds on some fronts but I would argue is mostly a failure in terms of gameplay.

A pretty good but not great sidescrolling action game mixed with a pretty good but not great urban planning strategy game - jack of multiple trades but master of none.