Psychic World (MSX) (1988)
Psychic World (Mark III) (1988, 1991)
Psychic World (Game Gear) (1988, 1991)
Developer: Hertz

Review by Faididi and Co.

Extra satisfying platformer

Story: Above Average

Lucia and Cecile are twin sisters working as research assistants at a laboratory located on a remote prairie. One day, while the tiny staff is studying extrasensory perception (ESP), an explosion occurs within the facility, and Cecile gets abducted by monsters in the chaos. Lucia must rescue her precious sister, so she borrows an experimental ESP booster that lets her channel her hidden powers, and then she immediately sets out after Cecile, ready to slaughter anything standing in her way. The dialogue is written well, and the plot adds interesting twists in the final scenes, where Lucia discovers the secret behind the monsters.

Gameplay: Excellent

Hertz's Psychic World is an action platformer with an awesome ESP system. Lucia fights her way through 6 side-scrolling rounds, blowing away bad guys with her psionic shots. By finding power-ups, she can acquire and upgrade a total of 9 ESP abilities. Besides her default energy blast, Lucia will obtain attacks involving elemental water, fire, ice, and sound. Her repertoire isn't limited to the offensive, either, as she'll also get to cast protective shields and levitation. Increasing Lucia's proficiency in the various abilities is easy, and that helps her become immensely powerful over the course of the game.

The element aspect is no small gimmick. Picking the right types of attack is key to beating the enemies with different resistances, but the elements play an even larger role in the environment, because Lucia can use her projectiles to manipulate her surroundings. In one round, for example, she can shoot fireballs to melt ice blocks obstructing her path, or she can shoot cold projectiles to freeze falling water, creating new platforms. By using her fire and ice attacks, she can construct and break down footholds at such areas, which is really cool.

The rounds themselves take place across a diverse group of regions, including grassy plains, volcanic tunnels, icy caverns, spooky forests, ancient ruins, and the hi-tech fortress ruled by the mysterious enemy leader. The engaging level design features many traps and puzzle-like obstacles, keeping the game exciting from beginning to end.

Just as impressive is the enemy design. The bad guys come in a huge variety of mutants and drones, with the fearsome bosses consisting of monsters like a chimera, a fire-breathing dragon, and a robot golem that controls gravity. The bosses can also require quick thinking to defeat. For instance, the dragon is too tall for Lucia to shoot in the head, so she has to freeze some water in order to climb higher. At the same time, though, the dragon can melt her ice platforms, so she'll need to keep switching between hitting the dragon and constructing more ice platforms, making the action delightfully hectic.

Controls: Excellent

The controls are perfectly responsive. Lucia runs, jumps, and attacks with ease, and the same goes for choosing and using the ESP abilities.

Graphics: Excellent

The colorful characters are smoothly drawn, and the richly textured backgrounds contain plenty of animated details, such as flowing water and glowing magma. The movies are beautifully rendered, too.

Audio: Excellent

Each round has its own inspired tune, and much of the upbeat music is catchy. The forceful whooshes of energy blasts and the rest of the sound effects are strong. The way that Lucia's shield and levitation abilities come with a beeping noise (as well as a flashing signal) to indicate when their effects are about to end is a very handy touch.

Overall: Excellent

One doesn't need a crystal ball to see why Psychic World is a wonderful action platformer. Thanks to its enjoyable ESP system, creative level and enemy designs, and fantastic visual and audio effects, this gem truly brings out the fun with psionics.

Port: Excellent (Mark III, Game Gear)

The Mark III / Master System and Game Gear versions are mostly the same as the MSX version, retaining all the important qualities of the original material while further polishing several parts. For instance, the upgrades for the ESP abilities are made more consistent, and the items are less randomized. In the Game Gear version, the action automatically pauses whenever Lucia is in the process of switching powers, making things even more Player-friendly.