I first encountered "Rastan" in the arcades around '88 or '89 (I think....it's been a while). I remember how impressed I was with the colours, the graphics - at least for that time - and the maddeningly addictive music. Almost 20 years later, the game seems a bit stale and underwhelming, but the gameplay is still simple and fun, and I find I still enjoy that soundtrack after all this time.
The game is reminiscent of "Conan" and / or the "John Carter of Mars" stories, what with a mostly undressed barbarian sort of protagonist striding along and chopping his way through plateaus and subterranean caverns, populated by a variety of monsters (most with two pairs of arms) and studded with all manner of jewels and other loot.
There isn't much in the way of manoeuvres to choose from when fighting; the only real variations consisting of: "hit really hard with a sword" being "hit really hard while crouching" and "hit very hard while jumping". Truth be told, this game is only a short step from something that an old Atari console could have probably handled. There are a few other surprises along the way, and various new beasties to cleave in twain, but don't expect anything too impressive in the way of AI here. Redundant extremities aside, the opposition has all the innovative fighting technique of a mob of drunken frat boys during pledge week.
The graphics of the game are alright. Some attention is paid to giving objects and characters at least a modicum
of 3-dimensionality, as well as some rudimentary lighting and shadow effects. However, Pixar this isn't. Remember that we're talking late-80s here, so don't expect to be too bowled-over. The real triumph in my opinion is the music: hypnotic, often repetitive, but with a certain primitive and arcane flair that causes it to burrow into your psyche and haunt you for days. I recall getting very frustrated by the challenges of the game as a kid, and the only thing that kept me coming back to the game seemed to be the music. That damned, inescapable music. Even now it makes me grin at the thought of how much time I wasted in front of an arcade game (and later my C64) just because the music was too catchy to resist. Ah, for the simpler times of the 80s!
