Crusader: No Remorse

Crusader was very popular among my friends when it first came out on the PC. While I was still in the dark ages where PC's were concerned, I found the Sega Saturn version more than enough to satisfy me. Let's discuss ...

The story is nothing spectacular; you're a Crusader on a mission to destroy the evil organization. Yeah, like I said, nothing you haven't seen before. The presentation is what sets it apart. The perspective is similar to Sonic 3D Blast, with your top-down ? view. That in itself is a problem for some as the controls take a little getting used to. And on top of mastering the controls, the number of options will have you reaching constantly for the instructions. You can tell from that aspect alone that this was ported from the PC.

Once you have a firm grasp of the controls and maneuvers the action really takes off. Shooting enemies, excoriating enemies flesh, gunning enemies down with remote controlled robots; this game has a little something for everyone. Not to mention the coup de grace, slicing enemies up with propeller blades. This game is alive with death, for lack of a better term. Most enemy corpses can be searched for goodies once you annihilate them; that is, if you didn't burn them beyond recognition.

My only real gripes with this one are the control learning curve, which is admittedly a minor inconvenience only at the beginning of the game, and the small, somewhat pixilated character models. They certainly pass muster, but I feel they could have made them a little more detailed. Other than that, this is a great experience. The music and sound effects provide a great deal of atmosphere, and each level is objective based, so you always have something to do. If can still find it, definitely pick it up.