Games of the Abstract: MediEvil (1998)

 

Developer: SCE Studio Cambridge

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

One Player

Sony Playstation

 

MediEvil was a game of my childhood, one never completed but with the disc still in my collection. Finally beating the game, it does shows the struggles of the games from the fifth generation, that despite being an action adventure game, this also is a 3D platformer too, whilst also show the enthusiasm and creativity also intermingled into this Sony exclusive. The legacy of the game is cemented knowing its 2000 sequel, and that in 2005, MediEvil: Resurrected was a remastered version for the handheld PSP console, and that in 2019, another remaster for the Playstation 4 was released. These are versions for a separate review, as this one is focused entirely on the original Playstation version, though I can say with admiration that, for the 2019 remake, even if you have to unlock it the creators did include the original PS1 game rather than discard it to history as an extra, something I wish was standard practice for remakes in general.

It is strange to know Sir Daniel Fortesque, the deceased knight of this game who became a Sony character, originated from a game initially planned as "Dead Man Dan", indebted to Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985) as much as Tim Burton in the final MediEvil game¹. It is a curious alternative world to envision, but the originator of the character, Millennium Interactive Ltd., was however bought by Sony and became SCE Studio Cambridge, during their giant killer run with the original Playstation One, getting revenge on Nintendo for their spurned SNES CD peripheral² and challenging Sega with the Saturn. One of the reasons Sony did so well as newcomers into this industry was their acquiring of studios, and getting as many games out as they could, be it acquiring Psygnosis, a veteran British developer at the time already who brought the likes of the Wipeout franchise to the console, to the former Millennium Interactive Ltd.. MediEvil clearly had a lot of faith in its production as a) it was one of the first games to help sell the new dual shock version of the PS1 controller being introduced at the time, and b) with certain copies like my own, an Official Playstation Magazine demo disc was included as an extra.

MediEvil, in an alternative fantasy world, is about an evil wizard named Zarok who, seething losing a war a hundred years earlier to take over the land, returns for round two, using his magic to summon the dead as zombie hordes, and possess the populous and turn them into mindless killers. His act however resurrects Sir Daniel Fortesque, credited as a hero who helped stop Zarok but, on the battlefield, died during the first charge from an arrow in the eye. As a result, this is both his heroic journey to stop Zarok but also his redemption, as in this world, dead heroes have their own Valhalla, a hall where, collecting the chalices in levels from noble acts or slaying enemies, Fortesque will be able to become a true hero and have his own statue among his brethren. MediEvil's best aspect is its personality, indebted to the macabre in mind to its limits of old PS1 games. When the game is not struggling with jumping on precarious platforms or any falling traps in general, the game has slight hack 'n' slash aspects, initially in the graveyard Dan was rested, and eventually with him going to wander out into a world of mysterious magical woodlands to flying pirate ships of ghosts.

There is also puzzle and maze moments, including how levels require runes to be found to open gates, and this is not including the non-linear adventure passages which evoke how ambitious the game was. Halfway through, finding secrets in earlier levels will be required to soldier on, including something as simple as acquiring a breakable club (or winning a giant hammer from the Hall of Heroes) to access one of these secrets. The chalices themselves, even once you earn enough to collect them, need to be found in the levels themselves with one exception, even if it means backtracking. Thankfully the atmosphere of the game stands out, not only aesthetically but because many are creative. You have a gauntlet run, in an asylum, hacking through enemies for one level, and in another involving a demonic corn field, where entering into the corn itself leads to certain death, you need to acquire parts for a combine harvester at the end of the level, including getting through a series of harvesting death traps, and travel back to the middle of the stage to use a sentient combine. There is an antiquated charm in the dated polygons, but the world, alongside a surrealism I equated to games like this and platformers from the PS1 from my childhood, has a lot of variety to this game which has to be praised. Even if levels like the pirate ship evoke Gex 3; Deep Cover Gecko (1999) and other games from my childhood, that is not a bad thing from my nostalgic slant.

Let us however get the problems out of the way, before we return to the virtues. Unfortunately, this game has the struggles of the generation it was made in, clearly made with ambitions bigger its practicality, just found in the amount of weapons you will earn and never need, from spears to goddesses' lightning, to even a power (with limited rounds) to turn enemies into roast chickens, which was useful and funny for me in one level involving hell demons, but no longer needed when a magic sword is acquired. There are many great moments in this game, but tragically there are some of the most frustrating I have played in a long time, even undercutting great moments. Some of it is mistakes - a great level in structure, a hedge maze where you complete simple puzzles, has both a frustrating second one, but more disconcertingly the ability to lock you out the exit with the final chess piece puzzle, which means having to replay the entire level. Some were bad ideas - the first act of the final boss, involving the chalices, involves standing about draining your health to heal skeleton soldiers until they win, which is tedious and liable to have game over screens over and over. The other problem, the greater one, is being an early game in third dimensional platforming. Only two years from Super Mario 64 (1996), seen as a huge pinnacle in getting the new format of the genre right, and with so many games figuring out the mechanics in 3D, some of the worse, true nightmares, of this game came from struggles with this new form. From the camera being the worse aspect of the game, a pain you can swing but cannot always provide you sight, and that certain sections, mere little platforms to jump onto and from, can lead to you losing all if not all your backup health within a minute.

You have a healthier life system for a platformer, one bar but with increasing (and replenished) vials provide lives in a form, but alongside enemy swarms which can be mean even with a shield, the real problems come with chasms of death, even bodies of water, where accidentally falling into voids let alone missed jumps are bad to negotiate. One level, a sodden battlefield with undead soldiers, collecting wayward souls and having to knock heavy armoured knights into the mire, is ruined by merely one or two jumps you can lose all your spare vials to for how cumbersome jumps are. The analogue sticks neither help at times, as you can accidentally turn them off the running function, and whilst you can run rings around enemies, it is also erratic movement, ill-advised for those areas with little space from the abysses, wiser for me to stick to the D-Pad instead.

The game thankfully includes the best aspects of this era too. The aesthetic is good, and even if aged now, to the point a remake was commissioned twice, this now has an accidental surrealism platformers I used to play as a kid also had. My favourite level is intentionally surreal, the second to last in "The Time Machine", a floating artificial world of brains to bounce on for greater height, giant sharpened clocks to avoid the hands of, and even a skull train to ride in, a delightfully strange level to witness. Thankfully, for every frustrating moment, many others won me over too. Sure, the battle with the giant pumpkin was more vivid in my childhood memory, but the entire pumpkin patch section is evocative with what was possible at the time, whilst my adult self can appreciate a later level like the village full of possessed civilians, where they are not to be killed and you have non-linear puzzles to work with. All of this is matched by the music by Andrew Barnabas and Paul Arnold, evocative and perfect for the tone, and MediEvil also has no qualms, proudly by a British developer, in being funny too. A ferryman of dead souls laments how vulgar the zombies are, the fairies you rescue in one level to win a chalice, where you are shrunk down to invade an ant hill, are far from ethereal women of tiny size, but male pot bellied ones with Northern accents, and the final battle with Zarok gets away with a sheep buggering joke. Alongside the accents, the whimsy on display, even when childish, is a huge virtue to the production.

The journey for Sir Daniel Fortesque is helped by Dan himself who, despite his stumbling about being too literal with the controls at times, is however a character who manages to develop charisma to appreciate. Even despite his words being mumbled, all due to the lack of a lower jaw he laments for, he is a lovable figure who puts up with being mocked by exposition gargoyle faces and all the pain of certain levels with the issues of early 3D games with platform sections. It did become a cherished memory, finally beating the game, to collect all the chalices, slowly creating a statue for him in the Hall of Heroes, finally letting this character from my childhood nostalgia redeem himself as a hero even for every time I fell into a void. He would return, into the Victorian age for MediEvil 2, but the joys of this tale being closed was worth it, even if I have to admit to the game's many flaws.

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1) Medievil's design history, with concept art and designs posted by Jason Wilson, one of the collaborators on MediEvil. Archived at Wayback Machine Internet Archive, and originally on Atomic City.

2) Infamously, as documented in article below, Nintendo were going to collaborate with Sony on a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System only to change to Philips, a worse slight as it was done on stage at the Summer 1991 Consumer Electronics Show to Sony's own dumbfoundment. It was worth referencing to in this review, even as sleight of hand, as it adds to the fascinating history of this period in the fifth generation with so much at stake. Alongside this type of backstabbing, a Philips-CD console, and Zelda games from a non-Nintendo console notorious in their own creation on that Philips machine also connected, you also have Nintendo accidentally creating their biggest rival in Sony entering the industry afterwards, leading to games like MediEvil.

The Weird History Of The Super NES CD-ROM, Nintendo's Most Notorious Vaporware, written by Chris Kohlet for Kotaku, published on September 7th 2018.