The Sony Playstation version of Ogre Battle was released about a month ago and it was well received. The Saturn version is now available and it looks like a direct port of the Playstation version. Both versions are essentially enhanced versions of the classic Super Famicon game that was released about 3 years ago. The gameplay holds up very well.

Ogre Battle was one of my favorites on the Super Famicom. It only took up around 16Mbits on the SFC; thats 2 megabytes of memory for one of the most addictive games available on any system. The 32-bit versions takes up considerably more space but it goes to show you that it doesn't take a lot of flash, memory or polygon power to make an enjoyable and very playable game. The blend of war strategy, power ups, quests, etc was perfect and made for some deep and involving fun. Ogre Battle is one of those games that you can sit down with and not notice the time go by. The main game is played on a world map where you mobilize your units and explore the terrain for treasure and secrets. When you have an encounter with enemy forces, the battlefield is portrayed with an overhead view where the combatants are arrayed against the enemy on opposing sides of the field. You can use impressive looking magical attacks against the enemy which can cover the entire screen and illuminate the darkness of the battlefields. Ogre Battle contains little secrets that you can find which will help you in your quest and in your battles. This was very cool and helped to add to the overall addictive quality of the gameplay. Tactics Ogre, the highly acclaimed sequel to Ogre Battle will be made available sometime in November for the Playstation and Saturn.

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