Play The Pirates Of Dark Water (may 1994) Online

I remember picking up The Pirates of Dark Water for the Sega Genesis back in 1994. It was developed by Sunsoft and published by themselves as well, a game that felt right at home among the platformers and action titles of that era. The box art, with its strange alien world, definitely stood out on the rental store shelf.

You control Ren, the main character from the cartoon, navigating through side scrolling levels and some top down ship sections. Your goal is to collect the thirteen lost treasures of Rule to save the world of Mer from the spreading Dark Water. The gameplay mixes sword combat against various creatures with platforming; you can also find and use a crossbow. The levels are screen by screen, so you clear one area before moving to the next, and the pacing can be quite relentless. It's a difficult game, where enemy patterns and tricky jumps demand quick reflexes. Playing it feels like a constant, tense scramble through a beautifully strange and hostile world.