Young Merlin

Nintendo exclusive

After trying to rescue a drowning young woman, the the hero of Young Merlin is drawn into a fantasy world which is threatened by the evil Shadow King. Naturally, it is your job to save this world and also to rescue the aforementioned woman who has been kidnapped by the Shadow King. This is done in typical action adventure fashion: you have to fight enemies using spells that are gathered during the progress of the game as well as solve puzzles and use several objects. What sets Young Merlin apart from other action adventures is the fact that there is no text in the entire game, instead, icons are used to represent conversations, furthermore, the game uses passwords,instead of a battery to record the players progress.

Released: 1994
Platforms: SNES
Genres: Puzzle Role-playing
Developers: Westwood Studios
Publishers: Virgin Interactive
Themes: Action Fantasy
Country: United States
Age ratings: ESRB T
Composers: Frank Klepacki

About

Young Merlin is a video game released for the Super NES in 1993. The game follows a young Merlin as he enlists the help of the Lady of the Lake to help him defeat the evil Shadow King.

Keywords

magic
action-adventure
fairy
underwater gameplay

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Reception

The game was praised by N-Force Magazine who gave the game a review score of 92% and described it as the next Zelda. Electronic Gaming Monthly commented that the game "strikes a good middle ground between fast action and slow RPGs. The levels are huge, the control is good and the graphics are up to the Virgin par." 6 out of 10.

GamePro similarly praised the controls and graphics but remarked that the gameplay lacks challenge and involves too much walking back and forth. They summarized the game as "a magical, whimsical ride that proves to be more funny than it is challenging" and "a fun and entertaining sidebar to more serious RPGs."