The Violinist of Hamelin (SNES)

 
Also known as Hamelin no Violin Hiki, this is a tie-in platformer based on the anime of the same name. The anime is about a bard named Hamel who goes around a European-style fantasy world fighting evil with his adventurer friends, which is pretty much the premise of the game too, though the only friend accompanying him here is his suffering sidekick Flute. It's a little smarter than most licensed 16-bit platformers, though, and it actually uses the presence of a sidekick character as a major mechanical gimmick.

 

The way it works is that you traverse the stages mostly in a traditional platformy manner, and Flute follows you around. At the start of the game, you can also stand on top of Flute, or you can pick er up and throw her at breakable walls. You quickly start to build up a collection of costumes for her, though, and you can change her costume in the pause menu. This is where the real meat of the game's puzzles and challenges lie.

 

Each costume gives Flute different abilities, that Hamel can exploit to get around the stages (mainly by standing on her head): the frog suit lets her jump really high, the robot suit lets her walk on spikes and punch through walls, the duck suit lets her swim, and the fish suit... lets her float around in a semi-uncontrollable manner? If you remember my Kid Chameleon post from a few years ago when I said that that game was like an edgy teenage re-imagining of Super Mario Bros. 3, I guess you could consider The Violinist of Hamelin to be a combination of Super Mario Bros. 3 with the AI-controlled sidekick aspect of Sonic 2, with both concepts expanded in a significantly more cerebral direction. It's a bit unweildy, but you know what I mean, right?

 

In pretty much every respect, it's a cut above most licensed platformers in terms of quality, and I'd even go so far as to say it was the equal of the Disney games being put out by SEGA and Capcom in the early nineties. And as much as I usually dislike puzzle platformers, this game does a good enough job of balancing puzzles and action that it didn't come close to being a deal breaker for me. I recommend giving this game a try, though obviously, don't pay the £100+ that legit copies are currently selling for.