Publisher: ASCII Entertainment (Japan) / Titus (US & EU)
Release: 1993 (Japan) / 1994 (US & EU)
Titus is a publisher who is more famous for its bad games than for its good games. Part of the reason is that they published Superman 64, which is known as one of the worst games of all time. Fortunately, Ardy Lightfoot is one of Tidus' better games, albeit a rather obscure one.The game tells a rather generic story about Ardy Lightfoot and his sidekick Pec who have to recover a bunch of stolen artifacts from an evil antagonist. This plot is told in short cutscenes which don't include a single line of text - everything is told through animations and pictograms, and most of these little sketches will put a smile on your face. The narration creates a very lighthearted atmosphere that permeates through the entire game.
Ardy Lightfoot is a very straightforward 2D platformer. The protagonist can jump, pick up and throw items and toss Pec around, usually to hurl him at enemies. Ardy can also point his tail to the ground in mid-air, allowing him to kill enemies by jumping on them, and to use it as a pogo stick once he touches the floor. Despite their simplicity, the controls are Ardy Lightfoot's biggest flaw because controlling the protagonist feels loose and sloppy and the buttons can be unresponsive at times. This sometimes causes Ardy to not use his tail when you tell him to, and if you tried to attack an enemy, you will get hit instead. Someone who playtests this game on an Emulator, ready to pass it up if it doesn't seem to be good within the first few minutes, will probably not stick with for longer than that.
However, the levels make up for the controls with their nice design. They aren't categorized into worlds, so each level is a unique experience. Ardy will run through a town, a mine and a forest, cross the ocean on a boat, explore a deserted island and a pyramid, all before finally entering the antagonist's castle. The game alternates between short levels that are rather straightforward, but usually feature some tricky sections, and bigger stages that focus more on exploration and triggering switches. It's this variety that ultimately allows the gameplay to shine. Like most good platformer bosses, the bosses here seem impossible at first, but once you figure out their pattern, they aren't nearly as tough anymore. Ardy Lightfoot overshoots the mark in this respect, however, because once you have figured out how to beat a certain boss, the fight becomes pathetically easy.Especially because of the controls, some sections can be very tricky, but you're given a password after each one as well as unlimited continues to balance it out. Some levels and the final boss offer a decent challenge, but the game never becomes overly difficult and is probably one of the easier experiences from the 16-Bit era. You can beat Ardy Lightfoot in a few hours, and once you have seen the ending, there are no optional difficulty levels or extras to collect, greatly diminishing its replay value.
Possibly the game's biggest asset, however, is its atmosphere. The graphics are average from a technical standpoint, but the art style is incredibly nice, featuring colorful levels filled with nice details and likeable characters. Even better than the art style is the game's soundtrack - just like the graphics, it's not a technical achievement, but the music is still extremely nice and relaxing.
Conclusion: Ardy Lightfoot is only a mediocre platformer at its core, hampered by sloppy controls and level designs that aren't anything special. However, it still manages to stand out because of its extremely nice atmosphere. To be honest, I'm probably biased towards this game because I was charmed by its music, its cutscenes and its art style; but the point is that the game did manage to charm me in the first place. Ardy Lightfoot is varied and reasonably challenging, so for anyone who likes 2D platformers and wants to look for something different besides Mario and Donkey Kong, it is most definitely worth a look.
Rating: 8/10 (Very Good)
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