Sega’s shining RPG Gem casts you in the golden gauntlet of “Prince Ali”, a suspicious Aladdin impersonator in a fictional land of magic, gods, and of course, the aforementioned golden gauntlet. As a treasure hunting prince (Why? Seriously you don’t have enough already?) you find a mysterious gauntlet, which ends up being the better half of a set of two (the bad guys get a silver one!) wherein you unleash an unholy mash of monsters and evil hellions who look to destroy you and your land on account of your silly, greedy discovery.
Well, Alla— Ali, since you brought this mass army of destruction across your people, you better set off to right your wrongs while your mom and pop chill out in the comfort of their thrones with the help of HP upping steaks, crossbows, humongous swords and the magic that the gods grant you. Other than that I can’t say honestly that I remember the plot so much, but the gameplay and visuals truly make up for it.
Like Link before him, Ali is controlled over a top down camera in a 2D world bearing a blade (or whatever you equip) and ventures off to beat the snot out of these ugly squatters… The difference between Ali and 2D era Link is… Well… to be totally honest, Ali is way more bad-ass. Link slashed. That’s it. Ali is set up with a pretty decent set of moves, ranging from Slash, Stab, Kung Fu Kick, and fiery, flipping variations of these moves. Combo kicking a sword slashing Sasquatch wannabe after a stab/circle slash/backflip combination looks awesome in itself, and the vibrant artistic world doesn’t hurt the game at all.
The camera is a tad close, so it’s hard to see a bunch of the world at all, but exploration pays off — come on, you’re a treasure hunting money grubbing, steak eatin’ prince of the land… Huge, difficult, but pattern oriented boss encounters are great fun, and require you to work at leveling up to stand a chance. A vast amount of enemies from Koosh-Balls, Blobs of Paint, and the aforementioned Sasquatch should keep your sword from rusting for sure and will definitely keep you busy.
Beyond Oasis is easily a must own. You’ve got to have this title since you probably missed it the first time around; I know that I sure did. That was then and this is now, Beyond Oasis is here and I am lovin it.
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