Story:
The story presented in A Satyr in Hell is pretty much non-existent. All you know is that you’re a guy that has been cast into the depths of hell, with his only escape being to traverse a seemingly insurmountable amount of tile towers in an effort to get up through each level of Hell.
Gameplay:
A Satyr in Hell is a puzzle platformer that is more of a race against time than a precision platformer. Each stage of the game consists of a tower of tiles that you must traverse while avoiding various obstacles. These can range from a rising lake of lava and flame demons to flaming skulls, just to name a few, and as you climb the tower, you will need to use a headbutt attack to move the tiles into the position that will allow you to move up the tower or find a path up to the next level.
Graphics and Performance:
At first, the graphics may seem subpar when looking at the first few stages. However, as the game progresses, you really come to appreciate the amount of detail in the game. The animation of the enemies, enemy detail, and the fluidity of the movement of your character along with tile manipulation all help to bring a great-looking game. Enemies and the tiles appear to be where all of the detail went in this game as far as graphics are concerned.
Both the player character and the lava look rather generic and lazy in comparison. This was my initial thought, but the more I spent with it, I believe this was done on purpose. Your player character and the lava are both constantly moving and moving extremely quickly and precisely. These were kept generic looking so that the game didn’t take a hit when it comes to performance.
Speaking of performance, this game seems to achieve something that no other Sega Genesis game has ever done. With how quickly your character moves it would appear the game plays at 60FPS. Unlike every other Genesis game, this game has no slowdown, no pop-in, and no flickering, and has been expertly optimized.
Sound:
So much emphasis was placed on all other aspects of this game, it appears that the sound took a back seat and was more of an afterthought. The background music is sub-par and the sound effects are at least present. Instead of having a catchy soundtrack, the music seems to be dull and repetitive with the sound effects only serving an underwhelming purpose rather than being memorable and fun. Regardless of this, it doesn’t really matter much and I believe the developer thought so too. There is so much going on at one time, you really aren’t going to focus much on the music. I mean it’s not like you can just sit there and listen to it, you have to constantly keep moving and thinking multiple steps ahead.
Conclusion: A Satyr in Hell is a phenomenal game that has been able to achieve such a high-performance level that even Sonic couldn’t keep up. Puzzles are well thought out with each stage providing a fresh new challenge to take on. If you like puzzle platformers with a dash of precision, this game is a game I would definitely recommend playing by any means you may have.
Disclaimer: A review version was provided. You can purchase the game here.
