Runes of Virtue II in Nintendo Power circa 1993
Nintendo Power was published in-house by Nintendo of America during the late 80s and 90s, and covered some of the most popular releases for the NES, SNES, and Gameboy. They frequently published detailed hint guides to the most anticipated releases of the day, including the Ultima series. What was especially wonderful about these publications were they often included bright full-page colour graphics and custom illustrations.
In November 1993, Volume 54, Nintendo Power produced a 4-page article featuring Ultima: Runes of Virtue II, which had been released that year. The article gave the handheld version a respectable rating of 3.525/5, with 3.0/5 for graphics and sound, 3.3 for play controls, 4.0 for challenge, and 3.8 for play and fun. The review praised the game’s story, cutscenes, and plot, while stating the graphics were small and the gameplay was overly complex for some players.
Nintendo Power briefly reviewed the SNES version of Runes of Version II in late 1994, with 2.8/5 for graphics and sound, 2.8 for play controls, 2.5 for challenge, and 2.0 for play and fun. The review praised the game’s story, graphics, and plot, while criticizing its controls and game view.
Head over to the Origin Gallery and check it out!
I’m rather puzzled by the drastic difference in notation between the GB and SNES versions.
They’re the exact same game!
I think that’s the point. The SNES version is the exact same game, but on a much more powerful engine. People expected better. I think the SNES version is slightly inferior because making the graphics larger, they actually made the play area smaller. It’s harder to see where you’re going.
Also, the SNES version has no character portraits. 😛
The difference is still too much I think. I’d agree the GB version if better, mostly because… ROVII looks pretty good for a gameboy game while the SNES version looks mediocre but it term of fun they were basically the same really.
Not trying to flood the article with the same comment, but flooding anyway, I’ll repost the same comment I had made on the RoV1 article:
The first Ultima game I played was Runes of Virtue II for the SNES. I didn’t like it that much, but I knew there was something attractive to the game of which I was not yet aware. Perhaps I was already a fan of Ultima long before playing an Ultima game.