PixlBit

As I come to the home stretch of Blog-a-Day, I was distressed to discover that Three Wonders, released in 1991, was three games! Time has caught up with me and I'm typing this up the night it needs to be posted. Three games? Ack! I don't have time for this!

But it turned out to not be so bad. Two of the games are thematically connected and are excellent. The third seems like a random inclusion but is pretty decent all the same. The first game is Midnight Wanders: Quest for the Chariot, an action platformer that sees you controlling a hobbit-like creature that is seeking the mythical flying chariot to undo the evil wrought against the kingdom...or something. I don't really care because the game is great. Seriously, it might be the best game on this entire Capcom collection. It's a beautiful game to look at with a whimsical-yet-dark fairy tale aesthetic that has enough variety to stay fresh, and the music fits the game well. Most importantly, the action feels really good. If I died I knew it was my fault. The bosses didn't feel cheap. The game is quality top to bottom (it reminds me a little bit of Gunstar Heroes) and I can't say enough good things about it.

Chariot: Adventure Through the Sky is the direct follow up, but rather than a platformer it's a side scrolling shooter. The chariot looks more like a hang glider but it's magic and so can fly rather than merely glide. In the first game, apparently, you cleansed the land and now it's time to purge the heavens! So while there are a lot of reused sprites, especially for the enemies, the game has a cool celestial theme and all the bosses (who again are not cheap!) are based around planets and constellations. It's a really solid shmup that's a great chaser for Midnight Wanderers.

The third game breaks the theme. Don't Pull is a block-pushing puzzle game with animals and cute monsters. I played a few levels of it and it's perfectly fine. It's just such shame it doesn't tie into the other two games. Maybe I'll come back to it some time.