Strahl.

Some games are incomprehensible because they are in a foreign language. Many are the times that I have stared with a blank expression, gawping at my TV screen, hoping, against all odds, that if I stare long enough Kanji will suddenly and magically become readable.

Forced because of my ignorance, to work methodically through the menu system, fantasying that I will hit a menu option that will convert the game to my native tongue. This, I should point out, has never happened. But hope springs eternal.

If I’m lucky, occasionally, a small female east-Asian accented voice will chirp up from their endless soppy-blog reading and lazily tell me to “Click there – you want to start the game right?”

Other games are incomprehensible because they are too complicated. You read the instructions. You look at the menus. You fiddle with the joypad but you are overwhelmed with a resolute desire not to be bothered.

Strahl is neither. The game is in English and it’s a simple ‘see icon’ press corresponding joypad button type of game.

So why, I guess you are wondering, is it getting the patent pending 3DO Kid ‘Megablog’ treatment?

Well – OK - The point of going through these games was to firstly tell people what I thought of the game and secondly provide more information than is generally available. Nothing exists for Strahl. The usual suspects have a few words – the wonderful Digital Press and a couple of other hobbyists like me but nothing too profound.

So - I can’t just say ‘it is good’ and leave it at that. Well – I could and I have but I know it is naughty.

So why am I bursting to tell you about Strahl? A game that first saw light on the Sega Mega-LD. (Laserdisc) and was also released in Japan on the Sega Saturn. Well, to be honest, I think there is a mystery here.

It’s a Laserdisc game (another?) and like all laser games it is a fairly short-lived affair. The whole game, from start to finish, takes about 15 minutes. From peasant boy Alex Huckfield to the King Alex Huckfield faster than John Prescott at all you can eat Pie and Chips buffet.

It also plays like Dragons Lair. Strahl says press left, you obligingly press left. Strahl says bash away at the “B” button on your 3DO controller, then you must bash away at the “B” button. Choose to argue and it will be game over. A hundred year ago it would have been called "Simon Says" in 1994 it was called an Interactive Anime movie - seemingly progress studied marketing but little else.

So, to summarise: No depth. No longevity. No ability to explore the game. Most people would consign Strahl to the celestial dustbin in the sky. A large black plastic bin put there by fans of Attic Attack and doing a quick trawl of the web you’ll find that most people have.

…but I’m not a fan of Attic Attack – I’m 3DO Kid.

So what’s to wonder about?

The big thing about Strahl is that it gets “Marks for effort.”- I know what you are thinking. That is like saying can we just be friends? “I like you, I really do, but can we just be friends.” It’s a brush-off. It’s a “Must do better” kind of comment.

…But Strahl is special. It’s not mediocre in the traditional sense. It is half utterly awful – and half down right jaw dropping amazing. The chasm between the two is pretty enormous. To the point where you have to wonder why has a game with such great graphics got such a lousy game and terrible plot bolted too it?

Some Japanese games have a knack for immersing you in a world where you get the feeling you should already know what is going on. Who the main character are and what they are doing – certainly that is the feeling I get from Strahl. Seeing it for the first time makes you pause, imagining that perhaps in Japan Strahl is a hit TV show with a string of Anime books and trading card game – except it hasn’t and it didn’t.

There seems to be no precursor and no successor but the animated representation of Alex, the main protagonist, seems well established, the art is broadcast quality and the sequences have been hand rendered by someone who knows exactly what they are doing. So-much-so that the graphics are the only reason to play the game - but it is a damned good reason.

Conversely the story line while certainly unique is best described as odd. An old man starving on the edge of a village is saved by the main character Alex. As it turns out, it isn’t an old man but the Creator – I’m assuming they mean god. To be fair I don’t know many games that feature god in this kind of way - simply a character. Sure, God mode or play as a god as in Populous – but not god himself as a character equivilent too Tales in Sonic games – with this element the story feels like a pre-biblical mythical tale or a Greek Classic tale – but it doesn’t take the concept much further than I have written here. God sees something in the young Alex and draws the conclusion that, should Alex pass seven trials, he could be suitable to become king. And that is as far as the plot goes.

Why? What? Eh? While you are scratching your head about this the opening level starts. Alex clinging to a ledge looking down a crevice with lava flowing beneath him. It’s fairly immediately engaging. The scene is well drawn and professionally animated. A prehistoric bird swoops into view, a giant rock creature emerges from the wall behind him and the anime-action style music plays in the background – without a doubt it is a beautifully crafted experience seeing it for the first time. A few joypad presses later and Alex is engaged in battle with a Titanic stone like enemy on his quest for the first crystal – or hidden light if you want to pedantic. Either way the battles are impressively delivered. As are all subsequent battles.

It also sounds like anime. If you have never seen an Anime movie this is going to be hard to describe but basically grunts made by Alex as he leaps and clambers about, the sound made when the sword is used or when say for example, glass breaks, is all classic anime.

Of cause while you are soaking in the opulent anime experience an arrow indicating you should have pushed up appears and because the movie keeps drawing you in, you will have forgotten you are playing a game and you will miss it.

Alex will plunge from the cliff. Get eaten. Die. Get chopped up. There are 48 ways for the young Mr Huckfield to scamper off this mortal plain. However, should you fail to complete Strahl on at least your second attempt you may wish to go to Accident and Emergency as either you are blinded and haven't noticed or someone, unbeknown to you, has cut your thumbs off.

The action sequences are spread over seven tasks. From forest and cave to labyrinth and flowery meadow.

At the end of each sequence Alex collects a crystal – interestingly in Japanese it says ‘hidden light’ rather than crystal but it amounts to the same thing visually. Having collected a crystal a new technology is bequeathed upon your village. Hot air balloons or improved windmills – Which is interesting but this part seems to serve no purpose, other than to suggest you will be a benevolent King – should Alex survive the quests of cause. However, there is no scoring mechanism, no rendered reward for your efforts, nothing.

The overall feeling I get is that Strahl is only half finished. Either it is rushed – or it had its budget pulled. Maybe it was a TV show and has simply been cut and paste into a game? There are other questions: Why is it called Strahl? It’s not a Japanese word. Strahl, in so far as I can make out, is a name. Why are the animated sequences so good but the rest of the game so awful?

What Strahl amounts to is a sequence of exceptionally good anime action sequences, glued to flimsy game and a mystifying story.

It also very rare – not quite as rare as the Mega-LD version but certainly heading that way!

3DO Kid.