CORBIE'S GAME BLOG

I was perusing the local pawn shop one day back in 1986 when I came across a Sega Master System. Now I was already the happy owner of an NES, but when I noticed that the system was packaged with one of my all-time favorite arcade games, R-Type, I just had to buy it. It only cost me $30, and I got two other games with the system as well, although I wasn't familiar with either at the time. The two games were Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Phantasy Star. I spent the next few days engulfed in R-Type and pretty much ignored the other two games until I finally had enough R-Type and wanted to try the other games out. That's when I discovered a game that would become one of my all-time favorites and really the game that kickstarted my love of console rpgs into high gear. I popped Phantasy Star into the cart slot of that Sega Master System and I don't think I saw daylight for three or four days, I kid you not.

Phantasy Star took the typical "dungeon fantasy" and added an outer space theme to it to create one of the most unique rpg experiences of that time period. While the game sported the standard turn-based combat system, it incorporated a unique dungeon crawling look and feel to the game while introducing more of the traditional console rpg types of gameplay to the mix. The music in the game was also one of its strong points and did a terrific job of carrying the many moods of the game. While the game might look and feel a little dated by today's standards, there are very few games that I consistently still play through to this day more often than the original Phantasy Star. If you've never experienced the greatness of the Phantasy Star series, the original is a great place to start and a true bright spot for a console that was almost completely pushed aside and forgotten due to the dominance of the NES system.