Magician Lord is ADK's Ghosts and Goblins and has amazing art (for an early Geo game), enemy design, cool music, tight controls, etc. and it's the right amount of frustrating fun a real arcade title needs. I still don't understand how people are so dismissive of it.
I've been reflecting on what I said about Magician Lord. I understand why it's being re-released. The fact that they wanted a variety of genres in the initial game selection and opted for an iconic title from the console's first generation of games, as some other forum members have mentioned, makes perfect sense.
For me, it's not a game that evokes nostalgia. I was born in '86, and that first AES release caught me too young. It's a different story if we're talking about Samurai Shodown 1, which for me is the holy grail.
But I think it makes perfect sense that it's being re-released. Besides, it's true that the game's music (it's always reminded me of the good old days of Judas Priest) is fantastic. I still maintain that the gameplay is debatable, but what I can't stand is the witch's hat the character wears.
Anyway, I shouldn't complain, since I would have re-released Sengoku 1, whose gameplay is more broken than the Cuban electrical grid. That said, the soundtrack and atmosphere are, in my opinion, the best part of the system, despite the ridiculous character colors.
Magician Lord's reflection stems from the initial, ultra-mega goob rush of believing they're going to re-release the entire catalog plus MVS exclusives plus unreleased games and even make new software. After coming back down to earth, 30 games in total seems the most plausible, and I can think of many more urgent titles than that.
PD: Sengoku 1 = Big Trouble in Little China + Steroids + Akira Kurosawa's RAN.
