Valkyrie no Densetsu (Arcade) (1989)
Developer: Namco

Review by Faididi and Co.


She's back, and so's the dude with the pitchfork


Story: Excellent

A goddess sends forth Valkyrie and her friend, Thandra, to rescue elemental spirits and to save the land from the forces of a wicked sorceress. The story is awesome for its large cast of characters, plentiful dialogue, and many movies. The supporting characters play vital roles in the heroes' quest, providing magic spells, offering tips of the dangers ahead, or even testing them with puzzles that may yield bonus power-ups, and that gives the game a nice RPG vibe.


Gameplay: Excellent

Besides bearing some similarities with The Return of Ishtar, Namco's Valkyrie no Densetsu is the sequel to Valkyrie no Bouken, and it shares the same overhead perspective. The main difference is this game is a 2-Player action platformer, and it proves that jumping can be as easy and natural with an overhead view as with a side-scrolling one. Like the dudes in Konami's Super Contra, Valkyrie and Thandra can also keep running and jumping as they attack in the eight cardinal directions, making this game friendlier than, say, Taito's Cadash.

The level and enemy designs have plenty to show off, too. Although the areas are more straightforward compared to those of Cadash, there are multiple paths at several points, and Valkyrie and Thandra can still discover hidden rooms and other optional places that hold extra rewards. The bad guys and the environmental traps come in a colorful variety, ranging from spear-tossing goblins and cuddly fire spirits to rolling logs and sliding electrical nodes. One of the more memorable scenes is the haunted ballroom with its dancing illusions and its boss who uses the floor's checkered pattern in his attacks. Another is the encounter with the mammoth guardian, whose question may be answered in a way that leads to a minigame, providing another pleasant surprise.

If there's one aspect that has room for improvement, it'd be the upgrade system. The only important power-ups that Valkyrie and Thandra permanently keep are the spells, which let them unleash mighty energy blasts, temporarily become unstoppable giants, create miniature drones, and fly for short distances. However, the weapon power-ups that enhance their default short-range projectiles into bigger shots don't last long, giving the heroes little reason to spend their gold at the shops on anything except the items that restore stamina or magic points.


Controls: Excellent

The controls are very responsive. Walking, jumping, and attacking are all easy to do, and casting magic is simple. Like in Cadash, the attack button is held to access the spell menu, but the interface design here is better, because the spells are manually selected instead of being automatically cycled.


Graphics: Excellent

Valkyrie no Densetsu brings the first game's vibrant, storybook-like visuals to the next level. The character animations are eye-catching, including the many hilarious visual gags of the heroes being squished flat by heavy objects, scrambling frantically after falling into deep water, blinking hard under a coat of ash after being roasted by fiery traps, and so forth. From the vast cliffs to the lava caves, and from the floating palaces to the frozen labyrinths, the backgrounds are rendered with plenty of detail and some interesting zooming effects.


Audio: Excellent

The game sounds just as great, too. Valkyrie and Thandra's blades whack against bad guys loudly, traps clang out sharply, and giant lily pads splash noisily against the water as the heroes jump across them. The inspired music brings out the bold, adventurous atmosphere of the game, and the tunes even change as the heroes progress through the middle of a level.


Overall: Excellent

An awesome sequel to Valkyrie no Bouken, Valkyrie no Densetsu easily impresses with its smooth controls, varied level and enemy designs, and attractive visual and audio effects. Fans of the first game looking for an experience that can be enjoyed with a friend will have a blast with this exciting 2-Player action platformer.


OST: Excellent

Published by Victor Musical Industries, the Game Sound Express: Valkyrie no Densetsu soundtrack contains the music and most of the sound and vocal effects from the action platformer. The only point of complaint here is that those sound effects, which come on separate tracks, probably should've been grouped together instead to make the whole package tighter. Nevertheless, a finer score could not have been chosen for the debut of the Game Sound Express series.


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