Risk (Genesis) Review
System Genesis
Developer Scupltured Software Publisher Parker Brothers Genre Strategy # of Players 1-6 Release Date 1994 |
Pros
Good representation of Risk Arcade Mode is fun Cons Only one map |
Review
by Thonos
6/12/2015
If I had to pick my favorite genre of games it would be strategy. Taking the time to plan your strategy, anticipating your enemies next move, knowing where to foritfy and where to attack, I have always enjoyed this type of game play. Risk is a classic example of a strategy game. Over the years I have played many different versions of risk on make different platforms. This one holds up surprisingly well.
At its core Risk is a very easy game. Place your armies on a map of the world, take over other players territories, be the last one standing. If you take over an enemy territory during your turn you get a card and collecting a set of cards get you extra armies. Take over continents to get extra armies. Overall the game does do a faithful job of emulating the game of Risk.
The game supports two modes of play: Classic and Arcade. Both game modes play the same except when it comes to combat. Classic mode is how you would normally battle, two sides face each other and an invisable dice roll is done. In Arcade mode you control a cannon that you can fire on the other sides armies that run across the scene. While the arcade modes combat takes longer I found it to be funner and more engaging. It is worth noting you can switch between arcade and classic mode in game.
The game supports three levels of AI difficulty. On the easiest difficulty I found that the AI made many mistakes and was not much of a challenge. On the harder difficulties the computer used better placement of its armies and was a much better challenge. This is important since while the game does support up to six human players, most of the time getting more than two or three human players together might be a problem. A game with one human and five AI on the hardest difficulty can be fun if you want a challenge.
The games graphics are passable but far from great. I usually not very critical about graphics, especially when dealing with the earlier consoles, but I thought the graphics here looked bland. The audio is also pretty basic but it gets the job done. With that said while I feel the graphics and sound could have been better, the gameplay is still good. The game does have some limited options within the game like skipping battle screens which can come in handy moving the game along.
Risk does have some downfalls. The game only has the standard world map and while there is nothing wrong with that, it would have been nice to have a few more map choices. Also, it would have been nice if you could modify some of the game setting before each match, for example the amount of starting armies. Another small issue I had was if I was playing a game with five computer players I was not able to turn off the battle animations until it was my turn. This may not seem like a big deal but if I happened to be the last player to go I would have to sit through roughly five minutes of animations from the other computer players which felt unneeded.
If you enjoy the game of Risk, you are going to enjoy this game. You get the classic game of Risk which plays just like virtually every other game of Risk out there. The arcade version of Risk is an interesting take on the combat phase of the game and one that I have not seen done before. However, if you are not a fan of Risk Games, the arcade mode probably will not change your mind.
This game was tested with one player only.
by Thonos
6/12/2015
If I had to pick my favorite genre of games it would be strategy. Taking the time to plan your strategy, anticipating your enemies next move, knowing where to foritfy and where to attack, I have always enjoyed this type of game play. Risk is a classic example of a strategy game. Over the years I have played many different versions of risk on make different platforms. This one holds up surprisingly well.
At its core Risk is a very easy game. Place your armies on a map of the world, take over other players territories, be the last one standing. If you take over an enemy territory during your turn you get a card and collecting a set of cards get you extra armies. Take over continents to get extra armies. Overall the game does do a faithful job of emulating the game of Risk.
The game supports two modes of play: Classic and Arcade. Both game modes play the same except when it comes to combat. Classic mode is how you would normally battle, two sides face each other and an invisable dice roll is done. In Arcade mode you control a cannon that you can fire on the other sides armies that run across the scene. While the arcade modes combat takes longer I found it to be funner and more engaging. It is worth noting you can switch between arcade and classic mode in game.
The game supports three levels of AI difficulty. On the easiest difficulty I found that the AI made many mistakes and was not much of a challenge. On the harder difficulties the computer used better placement of its armies and was a much better challenge. This is important since while the game does support up to six human players, most of the time getting more than two or three human players together might be a problem. A game with one human and five AI on the hardest difficulty can be fun if you want a challenge.
The games graphics are passable but far from great. I usually not very critical about graphics, especially when dealing with the earlier consoles, but I thought the graphics here looked bland. The audio is also pretty basic but it gets the job done. With that said while I feel the graphics and sound could have been better, the gameplay is still good. The game does have some limited options within the game like skipping battle screens which can come in handy moving the game along.
Risk does have some downfalls. The game only has the standard world map and while there is nothing wrong with that, it would have been nice to have a few more map choices. Also, it would have been nice if you could modify some of the game setting before each match, for example the amount of starting armies. Another small issue I had was if I was playing a game with five computer players I was not able to turn off the battle animations until it was my turn. This may not seem like a big deal but if I happened to be the last player to go I would have to sit through roughly five minutes of animations from the other computer players which felt unneeded.
If you enjoy the game of Risk, you are going to enjoy this game. You get the classic game of Risk which plays just like virtually every other game of Risk out there. The arcade version of Risk is an interesting take on the combat phase of the game and one that I have not seen done before. However, if you are not a fan of Risk Games, the arcade mode probably will not change your mind.
This game was tested with one player only.