Jewel Master
System: Genesis
Release Date: August 29th, 1991
Developer: Sega/Cube
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Action
Battle through your enemies and harness magical powers in Jewel Master! The Demon King, Jardine the Mad had led a dark legion to the land of Mythgard. Twelve Masters of the Elements banded together to stop Jardine and his madness. Their elemental rings gave them powers beyond compare. Together, they created a Holy Blade and you need to collect the rings to activate it. Can you defeat enemies through 5 levels of play to save the world?
Jewel Master is kind of an average platformer. You attack with your left and right hands, but must have rings equipped to have a magic spell. At first, I thought you could only use one ring per hand, which gives you a basic attack or ability, but then I realized you can pair rings up. This allows you to create stronger spells and really allows you to mess things up. There are four different powers hidden away in the rings with three different classes of strength. Red is the fire ring, blue is the ice ring, green is the earth ring, and gray is the wind ring. Fire is attacking through flame swords, fireballs, fire walls, and flame vipers. Ice is a barrier, but can morph into the ice dagger or even better wave. Earth is an earthquake that shakes the screen, but I didn’t find really useful. Wind is the utility ring, speeding you up, giving a high jump, or a double jump. The wind ring is necessary for platforming through later levels.
Enemies don’t do anything special other than come at you and try to touch you before you kill them. What is difficult is that healing items are few and far between. You also don’t recover health between levels, so there’s a lot of attrition going on. You also only get three continues to get your way through, so be prepared to start over a bunch of times, because the bosses can be difficult at first. Once you learn their patterns or a safe spot, they go down pretty easily. I did find equipping the utility rings can help you avoid frantic bosses.
Levels have multiple parts to them and the first four each hide a fairy that increases your maximum health. I only found three of them, which put me at a disadvantage for the final level. This is especially true because dying takes you back to the very beginning of a level and forces you to go through each stage again. The final ascent to Jardine puts you up against four elemental statues. These test your attack abilities as well as your ability to dodge. On my first attempt, I got through them by the skin of my teeth and limped my way to Jardine. He has an invincible form as a skull that I didn’t figure out how to properly avoid, so had to die and fight my way to him again. Then I realized I would need to use the Blade to actually harm him. This allowed me to accomplish my mission, but it still took a lot of energy to do it.
Graphics: 2.0
The graphics aren’t as crisp as I’d like. The color count is low and there is a lot of pixelation evident.
Sound: 2.5
The music is decent and sound effects didn’t irritate me.
Gameplay: 2.5
The new rings really help you feel more powerful as your abilities increase with each new ring.
Difficulty: 2.5
The journey isn’t that long, but the lack of healing and low life count makes this a game you have to memorize.
Fun Factor: 2.5
I had to resort to time travel because I didn’t want to play through the levels again, but I guess I wouldn’t mind giving it another go.
Overall Rating: 2.4
Jewel Master earns a C+. I doubt this will be your favorite game, but there’s no reason to totally hate it, give it a shot.