Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen Returns

One of the brilliant side effects of this recent resurgence of classic video games is the nostalgia that comes with playing the games you grew up with all over again. Nintendo has just released Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen for a mere 800 Nintendo points (about eight dollars) on its virtual console available for play on the Wii.

The description from Nintendo reads:

It’s up to you to defeat the Empire! It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since the Zetegenian Empire first conquered the Kingdoms of Zenobia with a wrath of fear and bloodshed. You are the leader of a band of rebels who have fought to preserve the last shred of honor in this desperate time of treachery. Manage the ranks of a full-blown rebel army, complete with hundreds of characters, magic items, weapons, and mystical Tarot cards. You must succeed in ousting the evil usurpers, as your fate, and that of the entire population, depends on it!

The graphics are 16-bit, and this game was ahead of the curve when it was released in 1993 for the Super NES console. It featured multiple endings, reputation system, automatic combat, and an interesting tarot feature that allows you to possibly sacrifice your reputation in return for an easier victory.

It is an early strategy game and certainly one of the more innovative during an era in console gaming where game play was starting to go from simple to more complex as designers pushed the envelope in an attempt to make games more interesting.