Wolf Child: A long lost gem of the ages.
This game's story is quite shallow. The main character's father is kidnapped and held for ransom, so the hero sets off on a quest to find him, facing endless hordes of enemies on his way. It's just like every other story that's ever been used in a video game plot. It's not a great story, but it works. The game is very old. It was released on the Amiga, an ancient incarnation of today's personal computer. Back then, games didn't focus heavily on story, and instead relied more on gameplay, graphics and an engaging sound track. This game is no exception.
The graphics, for the time that the game was developed, were absolutely incredible. The sprites are beautifully detailed, including even the waving of hair in harshly windy environments. Smooth parallax scrolling and other visual effects such as heavy rain give you the feeling that you're in a living environment. Even the boss characters have a colossal feel about them. The graphics by today's standards obviously aren't great, but are still quite enjoyable to those who understand what games were like when 16 bit first plopped its way into our laps.
The music isn't top quality, and in fact feels severely aged. Despite showing its age, the music is very well composed. The beats are on, and the synth-pop tunes make you want to snap your fingers, embarrassingly, although some of the songs in the Genesis and Super NES versions have curiously changed for the worse with less instrumentation layering, sometimes even completely replacing songs with much less inspired ones.
Artificial intelligence is an important factor in video games, and this game lacks any solid AI, detracting from its overall score. The AI in this one is dull and almost lifeless. Each enemy is placed in a specific block, ever waiting for their target to come nearer, so they may attack. Even when the main character has come into view, the enemies hardly attack with any sort of vigor, but instead attack lackadaisically, in easily decipherable patterns. The game definitely suffers in this regard, which is unfortunate considering the effort put into most other areas.
Aside from its lack of AI, and half-hearted story, Wolf Child is a war-hardened veteran that still has a few tricks up its sleeve. It's worth a play or two, and is available on the Amiga systems, as well as Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis consoles. For its time, it was a unique and enjoyable experience, offering good old fashioned platforming game play.