Two dimensional action games were a dime a dozen in the early days of the Sega Genesis. Strider is the one that immediately comes to mind, and is often regarded as one of the first classics in the console’s library. Then you add in other releases such as Shinobi, and later on Vectorman, and you have a strong representation of the genre. This brings me to El Viento. This isn’t a title that you hear a lot about. In fact, I’ve never heard it referenced even in hardcore gaming communities. I stumbled upon it purely off of chance, and though experience has made me wary of early Sega Genesis releases this one seemed interesting to me. I discovered that El Viento belongs to a trilogy of games; with Earnest Evan being the most popular of the bunch and the other one was released for the Sega CD in Japan. I discovered that El Viento is not only a fun romp, but also one of the best undiscovered hidden gems on the Sega Genesis.
El Viento’s scenario takes place in an anime style North America in the 1920s. A cult is hard at work attempting to revive an evil god named Hastur to wreak havoc upon the world. You play as a young heroine named Annet who is plagued with the deity’s blood flowing through her veins. This grants her special powers and strength that she must use to prevent his revival and destroy those behind the potentially cataclysmic event. What’s interesting is the fact that many of the stages take place at famous landmarks in the United States. Not all of them are mind you, but you’ll visit such significant places as Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and the Empire State Building. The most out of place one is Detroit… yeah. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and this stage takes place in a parking garage which I found hilarious. I’m not the biggest fan of the setting, but the cheese factor made it enjoyable and the inaccuracies are hilarious.
The game itself is a two dimensional hybrid platformer/action title. Your goal is very typical; you need to make it from one end of the stage to the last and defeat a boss character at the end. Enemies are the biggest obstacle in your path, but Annet isn’t helpless. That’s far from the case. She can throw boomerangs at foes to dwindle down their life bar leading to their defeat. In addition our green haired protagonist also has access to magic thanks to her relation to the antagonist god. These spells are accessed by holding down the A button. She has five spells, but you start with only a fireball projectile attack. As more are unlocked you can activate the others by holding down this button and releasing it when the charge meter reaches the magic you wish to use. You’re limited by an MP gauge, but this recharges as you play making these spells highly useful throughout the adventure. The feature is pretty typical, but put to good use here.
I’ve seen a lot of complaints regarding the level design of this game. I actually found it to be diverse and always interesting. For example, the first stage has you entering various doors to access new areas of the stage. In the next level you’ll find yourself working your way across rotating platforms in one of the trickier sections of the game. Later on you have conveyor belts, force fields, and enemies that leave huge explosions in the wake of the destruction. One of the most interesting areas of the game has Annet riding on the back of a dolphin while fighting off foes and even giant squids. There’s a surprising amount of variety here, and though the basic mechanics are very standard El Viento is made fun because each area is so refreshing. It’s all competently designed as well. The boss encounters offer just as much variety as the main game. In particular I was very impressed with the fight against the blob that is manipulated by each of your attacks with orbs in its center that you must hit to damage it. Another is a simple ‘watch the card’ mini-game where you must follow the movement of blocks to figure out where the boss is. The others feature very intelligent hit boxes that make it tough to avoid taking damage. Wolf Team did an incredible job here and it’s obvious that the developers really poured their heart and soul into this project.
El Viento is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to graphics. On one hand the enemies (and Annet herself) are very unimaginative and feature limited animation. The backgrounds are also generally a little generic with the typical dulled color palette present in most early Genesis titles. On the other hand there are a ton of neat effects in place here. This game features some of the most impressive rotational effects of the entire generation. I was astounded with what the developers were able to pull off in this regard considering that this is an early title! The parallax scrolling is also impressive. There’s some pixelation present, but it seems to be on purpose. Some enemies (the giant squids in the oceanic stage in particular) take up significant real estate on the screen. Because of this they’re very pixelated, but I really like the effect. In addition many enemies explode in a pixelated blaze. This effect is hilariously bad, but one that I grew very fond of. In between stages we’re shown story sequences complete with dialogue and anime styled still screens. Hands down these are the most impressive I’ve seen on the console. The drawings are more detailed and at a higher resolution than most of those even on the Sega CD. The ending sequence even features some animation, and it looks incredible. On another note I was shocked to hear that the soundtrack here was done by one of my favorite composers; Motoi Sakuraba of the ‘Tales’ series fame. He did an okay job here but it’s not up to par with his usual work. I blame the Genesis’ sound chip, but it’s still pretty decent and features some of the best compositions across the entire platform.
