The Wonder Years 4.24.08: Week 52 - Another World

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 04.24.2008

We take a trip to, yes, another world.

Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up on the Wii's Virtual Console or Xbox Live Arcade at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:

ANOTHER WORLD

(Interplay, Genesis & Super NES, 1992)

Perhaps more widely known to westerners as Out of This World and to easterners as Outer World, the former of which sounds infinitely more hokey and the latter of which sounds too much like 'Engrish'; thus my preference for the European title. Another World is probably one of the premier examples of a game that's inherently DOS-era (despite its development on an Amiga) being ported to the 16-bit consoles and making a name for itself while retaining its home computer-based identity. It's got a feel that's hard to describe, but you do get the underlying feeling while playing that you should be loading a new floppy disk after every couple of levels or so and moving the protagonist with arrow keys rather than a D-pad. Not a bad thing of course, but it's an ethos that surely drove some groups of gamers away from the title and gave it a true "cult" distinction. A shame really, as they'll have missed out one of the more unique and compelling adventures either console had to offer.

Programmed back in the days when a developer (in this case Delphine Software) was essentially an umbrella term covering a number of individual and distinct programming gurus (in this case, one Eric Chahi), Another World is a bit of a nostalgia trip for a certain gaming demographic, even if they never played it the first time around. The story, for as little actual exposition as there is in the game (barely a single line of text or dialogue between the title screen and 'The End'), follows a ginger physicist named Lester Knight. Already you're wondering why on earth anyone would cast a hero suffering from ginger-vitis, but stick with it folks. Lester, of course, is testing a particle accelerator in the middle of a thunder storm (that'll be the ginger-vitis working against him, then) when his laboratory is struck by lightning, which has the entirely logical *cough* consequence of transporting Lester to an alien world, where he is initially enslaved but soon manages to escape, remaining on the run for the rest of the game, encountering numerous foes and friends along the way.

The gameplay itself is notable for its stripped-down simplicity, somewhat along the same lines of fellow side-scrolling title Prince of Persia. There's no on-screen display or HUD, for starters, instantly rendering the game a more cinematic experience. There're no such trivialities as health or lives (one hit kills and infinite continues via a checkpoint system respectively), and control is limited to "move", "action" and "jump". Combat is initially undertaken via Lester's pathetic shin-kick attack (hey, he's a scientist after all), but eventually he finds a handheld laser that doubles as a personal forcefield. As Lester progresses, the actual game mechanics take on a mix of action-ing and puzzle-ing, but there's enough diversity on offer to prevent any sense of repetition during the game's (admittedly a little too short) running time.

If Another World's screenshots look familiar but you can't quite place it, you may be reminded of the same year's Flashback, which used the same graphical engine and quasi-cinematic stylings and, if you're like me at any rate, is somewhat better remembered in this day and age. It's also visually reminiscent of the old Windows Blade Runner adventure from Westwood Studios. Entirely polygon-based (a huge rarity for the time), the graphics ensure an idiosyncratic and arresting presentation, although the SNES version suffers for its low resolution (not to mention Nintendo's rampant censoring - did they want even a single gamer above the age of fourteen during the nineties?). The French-flavored score is suitably impressive too, setting the mood without ever overpowering or detracting from the overall experience.

Another World is one of those titles that really is difficult to pigeonhole. A friend of mine once described it as "Myst as conceived by Jordan Mechner", which is accurate without ever really hitting the nail on the head. In the end, I'm going to have to cop out and recommend that you test it for yourself - although I've never seen a cartridge on sale anywhere, I believe it's relatively easy to get hold of the old DOS incarnation, so there's no excuses for not giving it a go. It's an immensely satisfying experience, provided you're willing to forego your expectations and just go with the flow; everything up to and including the ending is a little unconventional, although not in the zany Japanese sense of the word (the ending, incidentally, is pleasingly ambiguous, even if it was annoyingly resolved in the perplexingly Sega CD-only sequel Heart of the Alien). It's one of an increasingly small number of 16-bit games that still provide an original gaming experience, which surely makes it worthy of your vote.

Another World trivia

• Games inspired by, if not directly related to, Another World include Fade to Black and Heart of Darkness. The designer of PS2 cult hit Ico was also apparently influenced.
  
• Several unofficial ports have been made to the Gameboy Advance, one of which bizarrely requires the 3DO version's disc to play.
  
• The game's original tagline was the frankly hyperbolic "It took six days to create the Earth - Another World took two years".
  

The Videosphere

Let's take a look at this week's video highlight. The beginning of the game really highlights its wonderfully stylised presentation (and, admittedly, its somewhat dated graphics engine), although the video does prod home the fact that it's very much a "love it or hate it" kind of style.




Reactions and interactions

A surprising amount of love for last week's look at Vectorman, which I had always thought of as a cult title. Apparently not, though:

Posted by: Drew

"All I can say is....eff yeah Vectorman!"

Enthusiasm! I appreciate this.

Posted by: Guest #7945

"Vectorman was one of the greatest games of the 16-bit era. I remember playing it over and over."

One of the greatest, eh?

Controversial, sir.

Posted by: Ramon Aranda

"I think Vectorman was highly underrated. It was a classic title that should get some love when it hits the U.S. shortly."

Yeah, I think this is a title that can do well as downloadable content, although I would have thought it might suit XBLA's audience a little more than the Virtual Console's.

Posted by: Eric

"I used to love playing Vectorman back in the day. I just recently bought a Sega Genesis again and this is one of the games that I will be picking up soon.

Also the 3D remake looked pretty terrible from the videos I saw. So its a good thing it didnt come out."
Posted by: Tyler

"Vectorman was my shit. That was easily my favorite game on the Genesis. I am both appreciative and disappointed that Vectorman didn't get transferred to 3D because everyone knows it wouldn't have been as good, but everyone wanted Vectorman back. Either way, great game, and great look at it."

The 3D remake didn't look awful (although it certainly wasn't too appealing), but the main problem with that game would have been the move away from the format the original game embraced. I imagine it would have been about as successful as turning Perfect Dark into a side-scrolling shooter.


General indulgences

Every week in this section I'll endeavor to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.

This week, I have been mostly enjoying:

Streets of Rage 2 - I'd almost forgotten how to play this since I last covered it in the Wonder Years a few months back, and I still suck at it. Undeniable fun, though.

Bender's Big Score - after finally having watched it, the big twist is obvious a country mile away, but the movie is still enjoyable, if not quite as funny as I'd hoped. Hopefully the Futurama writers will be back in the full swing of things by the time The Beast With a Billion Backs comes around.

The Remote Part by Idlewild, an indie pop-rock record that's been growing on me for years and may soon come close to breaking into my top 100 albums of all time [yeah, I have one for music as well as games. Nerdy? Yes. Anal? Yes.]

and the original Indiana Jones trilogy, which I've been re-watching in anticipation of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'm still beset though, as many other fans are, by the conundrum over which of the films is the least enjoyable.


And finally…

As always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome, I respond to everything so just drop me a line or leave a comment. You can also check out my science fiction column "The Flux Capacitor" over at 411 Movies. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - time for the summer solstice. Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.