Risky Woods Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [60 FPS]

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Developed by Dinamic/Zeus Software and published by Electronic Arts in 1992. Link to Amiga Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EChseE1P65A Risky Woods was one of my favourite platform games on the Commodore Amiga and I was surprised to learn that a Mega Drive port existed. I remember seeing screenshots of it online and noting that the main character had a different outfit, but I assumed that it would be more or less the same and paid little attention to it until today. I finally got around to playing the console version and, I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. Much of the core game is indeed the same, but there are some notable differences that change how the game plays out. For those not already familiar with the game, the player controls Rohan, a young traveller on a quest to save the world by rescuing a series of holy monks who have been entombed within a series of stone statues. The game is a horizontally scrolling platform/shoot 'em up that featured some fantastic graphics and sound on the Amiga version. Along the way, Rohan can collect additional weapons and power-ups to assist in his journey, some of which could cause more of a hindrance than a help. For example, collecting a piece of fruit will restore some of Rohan's energy, but it puts him to sleep for a short duration. This makes the timer decrease at an accelerated pace, so the player has to decide whether they have enough time on the clock to risk taking a boost in energy or not. All of this remains true of the Mega Drive version, so lets take a look at the main differences. Whereas weapons could only be purchased from shops between levels in the computer versions, the console version awards players with a random selection when bypassing one of the stone gargoyles. All of the weapons in the game are the same, but this is now the only way to collect them. Also gone is the weapon power system, with all weapons having a fixed damage system (although the chain/mace is still the best as it passes through multiple enemies). With the weapon shop gone, there is no longer any need to collect gold coins as there is nothing to spend them on. Instead, enemies now drop metallic discs that will bestow Rohan with a suit of armour once he has collected a certain number. The first armour is silver in colour and reduces the amount of damage received from enemy attacks, whilst the gold suit eliminated damage altogether. Contact with enemies will cause Rohan to drop tokens, so it's possible to lose the armour if he's not careful. However, it's possible to quickly grab tokens that were dropped and the flow of new tokens comes thick and fast, providing you can kill enough monsters. The new armour system is a surprisingly neat addition, even if it arguably takes some of the challenge out of the game. Even so, the game is still quite tough since the Mega Drive version runs a lot faster than the Amiga and the action is much faster paced; having the additional protection from the armour is certainly no bad thing! Also, falling down pits will cost you a ton of tokens, so you might not have the armour as long as you think. Perhaps the only real negative aspect of the armour is the way it trivialises the end-of-level bosses, especially if you have the gold armour. The other major change in this version is the way the Eye-Keys work. Instead of simply collecting a pair of keys to bypass eye gates, the gates have been replaced with stone gargoyles. Whilst you still need a pair of keys, activating them initiates a mini-game were the player must find the correct combination of button presses using the D-Pad to bypass the gate. The sequences become longer with each successive level and tight time limits can really put the player under pressure; it's very easy to mess these sequences up and you'll experience plenty of sweaty palms as you lose vital seconds trying to work out the correct sequence. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Mega Drive version has much smoother scrolling and faster gameplay than the Amiga, which featured some noticeable slow-down on a standard Amiga 500 when the screen fills with enemies. On the flip-side, the Amiga version runs at a higher resolution with sharper graphics and vastly superior sound. Whilst I love the Amiga version, I actually think that the tweaks made for the Mega Drive game actually make it more fun and interesting to play. Altering game mechanics can break a game as much as improve it, but I think that they improved what was an already fun platform game. Of course, the Mega Drive had plenty of high quality platform games (Cool Spot, Earthworm Jim) whereas they were less commonplace to find on the Amiga. Alongside the Sonic games, Risky Woods perhaps doesn't seem quite so exciting, especially when you would be paying £40 a time for a game. Even so, Risky Woods is still an entertaining game and worth taking the time to play. #retrogaming #sega #genesis