So...what do we have here?

Japanese Game Box Front

Treno, The Unlikely Hero

You start the game as a young man named Treno (After the practice fight you can't win). Treno and his gang (Cue, Mikey, and Bass) steal a statue out of a cave at the start of the game. That can only mean one thing...YOU'RE A COUPLE OF PUNKS!! Oh yeah! Returning to town with your statue, you then proceed to rob the villagers blind! As your crew has fun ripping off everyone and everything they can, they encounter trouble from a rowdy bunch of guys. As expected, the fun is short-lived and Lady Luck shows you how cruel fate can be. After a short period of time, Cue leaves and Bass is gone. Treno and Mikey then see an approaching tidal wave and it devours the village and all its inhabitants! You wake up in the forest to notice a familiar face. Why, it's none other than Doll, our powerful magician from previous SNES Aretha games! Treno and Doll then trek through a mysterious forest to find shelter at a nearby town.

Rejoice is not like the previous two Aretha games before it. The game isn't turn-based and the villain is actually Howard (Shown at the start of the game. He's actually from the Game Boy Aretha series!) The graphics for many things in this game are drop dead gorgeous and unexpected of a "nameless" company in gaming. Effects like snow and blowing leaves are outstanding and the color usage is superb. It's color usage of this kind that shows how important it is for games to have a good color palette. The music is decent...Actually, the back of the box brags about the sound saying: "Tight HipHop sound makes GOOD game music" (A general translation of Japanese text).

The gameplay is where the game falls. While the game isn't that bad, it could have been better if tweaked a little. The game is multiplayer, but it suffers SO MUCH SLOWDOWN when played with a friend (At least on the cart. I don't know if the ROM does that). This is highly regrettable because it deters me from utilizing an otherwise cool gameplay feature. To be fair though, I only really sampled the multiplayer in the beginning forest. Maybe it's good in other parts of the game? I would like to think so, since the inside of the manual shows FOUR characters fighting at once using all kinds of cool abilities. Second, you level up way too fast, making the game mostly easy. You can easily reach level 10 in the first forest with little to no difficulty whatsoever.

To balance this somewhat, the game doesn't allow you to use items on bosses, which helps a little. This forces you to play more skillfully on boss fights (Although you can still be auto-revived). On the good side, characters have varied abilities from one another which is a plus. Despite some gameplay flaws, the game is worth a play through even if you only play it to witness the graphical beauty. The game is not all that common though, and the price for it can jump because it's becoming more sought after. Try not to pay more than $25 dollars for it (I've seen it for $42).

- Written by Vyse the determined -