ActRaiser SNES

ActRaiser is Quintet’s 1990 SNES release, published by Enix in Japan that December and in North America the following November. You play a god who alternates between two modes: side-scrolling action-platforming as a knight-possessed statue clearing monster-infested land, and a god-game overworld view where you guide settlers rebuilding towns and use divine intervention to help them grow.

That split structure — six action stages paired with six city-building sections — was an unusual hybrid for the era, blending Quintet’s action-game pedigree with light simulation mechanics years before city-builders became a mainstream console genre. Composer Yuzo Koshiro’s soundtrack is frequently singled out as one of the SNES’s best, and the game’s action-only sequel, ActRaiser 2, dropped the city-building half entirely in 1993.