Might and Magic: Gates to Another World on the Mega Drive
The cartridge's subtitle is the clue to where it comes from. Gates to Another World is the name of Might and Magic II, New World Computing's 1988 sequel to The Secret of the Inner Sanctum. It first appeared on the Apple II, spread across a long list of Western and Japanese home computers, and eventually made the jump to consoles: Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and Super Nintendo versions followed. The Mega Drive release is commonly dated to 1991.
At a glance
- Based on: Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (New World Computing, 1988)
- Created by: New World Computing (original game); designer Jon Van Caneghem
- Released: 1988 on computers; Mega Drive version in the early 1990s
- Genre: First-person party RPG
- What sets it apart: a sprawling, number-crunching dungeon crawler squeezed onto a console
What kind of game it is
- You command a party of up to six characters, and can hire two more hirelings, who need paying daily.
- The sequel added Ninja and Barbarian classes, secondary skills and an automap.
- Levels go up to 255 and hit points can reach 65,535.
- The plot follows adventurers who helped defeat the android Sheltem on Varn: they pass through the Gates to land on Cron, where he threatens to fling the land into its sun, and must chase him across the elemental planes and through time.
- The final dungeon is on a spaceship and requires solving an encrypted message under a time limit.
Reception
Dragon magazine gave the Genesis version five stars out of five. Computer Gaming World said in 1991 that the Genesis game was easy to play and had excellent graphics, though it described the heavy focus on combat as workmanlike. On computers, PC Format listed the game among the 50 best of all time in 1991.