A prequel to Beyond Oasis, a Sega Genesis game, The Legend of Oasis takes place many years before Ali's Journey. Leon is a young man who is given the Silver Armlet by his mentor, Ordan, in order for him to become the Spirit King of Oasis. To achieve his quest, he has to gain the loyalty of the 6 elemental spirits that inhabit the land: Dytto, Efreet, Bawu, Brass, Shade and Airl. Each has his/her own power and Leon carries a varied arsenal of weapons along his journey to help him battle the likes of giant rats and fire-breathing bats. Leon's nemesis is the evil Agito who has the Golden armlet and threatens to destroy the land. Along the trip, Leon also encounters the raven-haired, Myra who also happens to be one of Agito's brain-washed hench-men. It's a typical story, but the plot points and rare twists add greatly to the gameplay and actually intrigued me.

The colours of the lush background keep the scenery from ever becoming boring and the animation of attacks and villains always appears seamless and clear. The only drawback visually of the game is that instead of redrawing larger monsters they're expanded until they look like pixelated blobs. In general the villains look very impressive, but not cute nor overly monstrous. The bosses, sometimes half the size of the screen, move clearly and are very well drawn and colorful. As for sound, the track and effects aren't spectacular but rarely does a video games' music annoy so little that I don't even bother to mute it and listen to a cd instead. For art and animation, the game is fress and visually pleasing. And as for audio, The Legend of Oasis is refreshingly adequate.

The control provide you with the ability to totally interact with the environment including exploring mouseholes, smashing barrels, and climbing trees. The varied weapons and magics allow for your characted to utilize a huge number of special moves and pass through the many complex mazes. At some points the puzzles do become a bit repetive. "smash the crystal, jump on the ice...", but over all, the battles require a lot of strategy and once you get the pattern of obstacles down, they become easier to overcome. In addition, the special fighting moves that come with each of the weapons and magics bring another dimension to the game. Discovering the hidden gems and scrolls that help your quest provide the game with a secondary goal in the form of uncovering secret treasures and battling hidden enemies. As for replayability, chances are you'll never be quite finished in terms of uncompleted obstacles and unfound treasures, so you'll probably be able to play this indefinately without ever getting bored. This game is innovative, fun, challenging and very simple to control.