#dragoncrystal

When I was young, I was drawn to this game for a few reasons. First, it was one of the few RPG-like games on the Game Gear. Second, I loved the idea that every game was different from the last. You never knew what items would do each time you started anew, and only experimentation would reveal the secrets of your loot. I loved feeling along the walls searching for passages,too. In short, Dragon Crystal felt like nothing else I had played, and its differences were intoxicating. Of course, with the passage of time, it’s now about as unique as the average side-scrolling platformer, but I think there is still some value in this game. At the time, it was maligned for its brutal difficulty, but with roguelikes becoming a common genre, it’s easy to see how much of that can be chalked up to a lack of experience with the tropes of these kinds of games. Judged by today’s standards, Dragon Crystal is neither so hard as to be unfair nor as easy as to be dull. It’s also extremely easy to come by, as it was one of the handful of games selected to represent the Game Gear on the 3DS Virtual Console service. For a few dollars, it’s the best roguelike bang for your buck available on the system, at least in my nostalgia-laden opinion.

Play It Because: It’s surprisingly hard to put down for a game of its vintage.