Games You Don't Play #2: Out Of This World SNES

Hey everybody! It's my second game review here on MySpace! Yay!! Aren't you all excited?!
Probably not. I doubt anyone is reading this, but if you are, thanks!! It really means a ton to me!

This time I'm reviewing one of my personal favorite games, Out of this World. The game was released in 1991 for many systems including: 3DO, Amiga, Apple IIGS, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, DOS, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega-CD, and SNES by Delphie and Interplay but was developed by a man named Chahi.

You start the game off as a character named Lester, a physicist who is testing an experiment in his laboratory for particle acceleration. Lighting strikes, and you find yourself in what seems to be another dimension or, "Another World." It's a world of prehistoric looking surroundings and creatures with some caveman-like humanoids armed with laser guns and other advanced technology.
After escaping a large saber-tooth tiger like creature, barely being killed by tiny toothed worms and not falling to your death, you are captured by a guard of sorts. He takes you to a prison, where you meet your one and only friend in the game. He is nameless, and you can't understand him, but you know, and he knows, that you only have each other and that you have to find a way out.
Difficult doesn't even begin to describe this game. It's a constant puzzle, and has no life bar or power gauge. You only get one weapon by swinging your holding cell until it falls onto a guard. You take his gun, and it's the only one you have for the rest of the game, and you better conserve it, because the recharging chambers are few and far between.
As you figure your way through the giant maze of a prison you'll come across many obstacles, Most of which will require you to die at least 20 or so times before you figure it out. If you can think of a way to die, it's in this game. You fall off a cliff, and you are impaled on stalagmites. You don't watch where you're going and a boulder will fall on your head and crush you. You don't run fast enough and rushing water might catch up and drown you. Strange creatures in the ground will catch your leg with their teeth and chew your leg off. Not to mention the many shoot-outs you will have with various guards looking for you, because they ARE looking for you. There is nothing in this game that can't or won't kill you, so you have to figure out a way around it. At no point in the game does it ever give you any clue whatsoever as to what it is you're supposed to do. You just try something, and if it doesn't work out, you try something else. You continue this until you figure it out.
Like most of the games from this time, there is no save point. You can only restart your game from a password given to you when you die. You know you made it to the next level when you get a new password after dying. Sometimes, you will finish part of a puzzle, and think all of your hard work paid off and you made it to the next level, but you didn't, so you have to start all over again and remember what the heck it is that you did and what not to do.
I like everything about this game, from the difficulty, to the music, to the cinematics, to the controls, everything about it. It is the ultimate side scrolling action/adventure. The graphics, for the time, in my opinion, are top-notch. Very visually pleasing and it really adds to the atmosphere to the game. They are cell-shaded for lack of better words. The music is very ambient, but gets suspenseful at just the right times to add to the gameplay.. And it does, trust me. When the music starts to get louder and more dramatic, just like in Jaws, it gets your heart pounding. There are all kinds of cinematics to watch throughout the game, and they are very well directed. The story is very heartwarming as it is about two friends in the fight for their lives.
It is left with an open ending and has a sequel called Out Of This World Part 2, which can be played on the Sega CD where the two games were packaged together under the name "Heart Of The Alien."
Don't worry, I won't spoil the ending for you! Even though I'm pretty sure you'll never make it there. And if you do, or have, kudos to you, because this game is quite a feat to complete.

I give Out Of This World a 4 out of 5 and recommend it to only the most hardcore gamers that think they can take on the most difficult of games. You really need a lot of patience for this game, and if you don't smoke, you will once you commit to this game! I know I chain smoked like a mad-man the whole time!!!

Here's a video of some silly ways to die in the game: