Young Merlin (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
497A playthrough of Virgin Interactive's 1994 Super NES action-adventure game, Young Merlin.
Got all of the items and upgrades, shows the best ending.
From what I understand, the developer Westwood (anyone into early/mid-90s PC adventures knows the name well) had originally set out to put The Legend of Kyrandia on the SNES, but they veered quite a bit by the time they arrived at the end product. There's no denying some real similarities - the title screen, the music style, and the graphics, though restylized to better suit the SNES, retain a lot of the same character and bizarre charm that the PC classic has. It plays smoothly, and it does a pretty admirable job of making everything clear without a single written word ever crossing the screen in game play. It was actually one the highest rated titles by Nintendo Power the year it came out.
And I can see why, for awhile. Its first couple of hours of play are pretty engaging, and everything is colorful and weird and fun. But then, out of nowhere, you realize the trap. There are very few locations in the game, so you will be made to backtrack halfway across the game world (no exaggeration), just to reach your destination and have to go right back. By the fourth or fifth time you do this, you might still hope that it's just a lull. The magic will return. But around the dozenth time, you understand that fate is a cruel mistress, and that the cake is, in fact, a lie.
The biggest attempt to break it all up comes in the form of mine cart rides that I couldn't imagine beating without a ton of repetition. I broke out graph paper. Seriously.
So, it's a quirky, personality-drenched game that really will enthrall you for the first third, dangle a carrot for the second, and make you want to bite the cyanide capsule before your get to the end. I love the beginning and hate the end, so I don't think i can say one way or the other. Some think it's a classic, some think it's putrid. I just see a lot of wasted promise and potential.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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