The name alone invokes the very essence of fantasy storytelling and Arthurian adventure, but Young Merlin may not be doing justice to that concept. Developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Games, this Super NES cart centers on a young boy tasked with defeating the dreadful Shadow King before he destroys all things of beauty. Join with the Lady of the Lake to quell this evil! The most striking thing about Young Merlin is, without a doubt, its presentation and art direction. Merlin is a huge contrast to the bulk of the SNES library in terms of style, utilizing simple color shading and a, somewhat jarring, darker palette (Sounds like a host of lesser Genesis games I've seen -Jet).
Young Merlin is a mixed bag. Its story is comfortable and familiar, and the developers added plenty of puzzles to solve. On the flip side, this title was weighed down by some unforgivable flaws. Combat is dull and unintuitive, it is overly tedious to cycle through your items on the pause menu, and, worst of all, nearly every quest involves fetching lost items for mediocre rewards. We were left wishing the team behind this cart took more inspiration from gems like Soul Blazer that managed to make this formula jive much better. With Merlin perhaps needing a few more years to mature into the famous wizard we all know, players yearning for an Arthurian tale should look to Capcom's Knights of the Round.
Printed in Issue #13, May 1994
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