History VideoGame / YoungMerlin

A Zelda-styled video game. Released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994, ''Young Merlin'' showed the titular Arthurian icon as a blonde-beefcake in his younger years. As the game begins, Merlin spies a woman (Melody, the daughter of Sterm) drowning in a river near his home to which he plunges in after her only to be swept into a mysterious land overrun by the Shadow King and his army of cussing [[{{Mooks}} David the Gnome]] look-alikes (the Meanies) that tend to join together to create other monsters.

* UndergroundLevel: The mines are a sinister maze that will get old very quickly.

A Zelda-styled video game. Released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994, ''Young Merlin'' showed the titular Arthurian icon as a blonde-beefcake in his younger years. As the game begins, Merlin spies a woman drowning in a river near his home to which he plunges in after her only to be swept into a mysterious land overrun by the Shadow King and his army of cussing [[{{Mooks}} David the Gnome]] look-alikes that tend to join together to create other monsters.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Everybody seems this way. Have Merlin use the comb. Nearly every enemy stops what they're doing and gawks at him with hearts above their heads as he combs his hair of "hawtness".
* ClairvoyantSecurityForce: The Iron Knight and the Mushroom enemies.
* CombiningMecha: Sort of. The goblins, small as they are, generally band together to form larger monsters like hogs, evil trees, and homicidal shrubbery.

* EnemyChatter: The goblins do a lot of this.

* MoodWhiplash: You spend most of the game in a generic fantasy setting until you go through the gateway in Pinedale. Welcome to your game on drugs where [[{{MindScrew}} rainbows, dragons, giant insects, mushrooms, and ladders popping up out of the ground and turning into giant purple people-eaters at any moment are the norm.]] :)

* {{Overheating}}: Several items do this. The Snowflake. The Medallion. Even the Torch.

* SaveThePrincess: Merlin tries to do this at the beginning only to find the girl is fine later... then has to do it for real in the climax.

* StoryDrivenInvulnerability: That Giant Spider? You can't touch him until the rematch. Same with the Shadow King.
* TeasedWithAwesome: The [[{{SymbolSwearing}} $@#in']] Thunder Spell.

* TotallyRadical: Merlin treats skating on his... mining... board as such.

[[AC:This game provides examples of:]]

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: The Bubble Wand.

* GuideDangIt: Without a walkthrough, you'll more than likely play it, get stuck, and never play it again.

* OffModel: Anatomy, posing, and facial feature distortion vary depending from sprite to sprite.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Everybody seems this way. Don't believe me? Just have Merlin use the comb. Nearly every enemy stops what they're doing and gawks at him with hearts above their heads as he combs his hair of "hawtness".

* ForMassiveDamage: That piddly star not doing it for you? Raise your torch and the nearest enemy, no matter how far will [[{{KillItWithFire}} barbecue instantly!]]

* [[spoiler:AllJustADream...OrWasItADream - The ending.]]
* AmbidextrousSprite
* AmbiguouslyGay - Everybody seems this way. Don't believe me? Just have Merlin use the comb. Nearly every enemy stops what they're doing and gawks at him with hearts above their heads as he combs his hair of "hawtness".
* ClairvoyantSecurityForce - The Iron Knight and the Mushroom enemies.
* CombiningMecha - Sort of. The goblins, small as they are, generally band together to form larger monsters like hogs, evil trees, and homicidal shrubbery.
* CutAndPasteEnvironments
* EnemyChatter - The goblins do a lot of this.
* ExcusePlot - You get the feeling the designers wanted to just put Merlin in some random location for the sake of it.
* EventFlag
* EveryBulletIsATracer
* FakeDifficulty - Save for the minecart-skating and puzzle spots, the only difficulty seems to arise from knowing what to do next. The items have no real obvious use.
* FlashOfPain
* FollowTheLeader - The game borrows from the Zelda series.
* ForebodingArchitecture - Those black flags with red eyes painted on them in the last stage.
* GuideDangIt - Without a walkthrough, you'll more than likely play it, get stuck, and never play it again.
* ForMassiveDamage - That piddly star not doing it for you? Raise your torch and the nearest enemy, no matter how far will [[{{KillItWithFire}} barbecue instantly!]]
* GameWithinAGame - The minecart rides.
* GravityBarrier - Most notable under water.
* HealingSpring - Several. In fact, the only body of water you ''can't'' get it from is the water around you when you dive below the surface.
* InformedEquipment - Until you use it, naturally.
* [[{{MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon}} Mime And Music Only Game]] - Some of the confusion arises from this, making it even more difficult to understand what the items are to be used for or even where to go next in some cases.

* MoodWhiplash - You spend most of the game in a generic fantasy setting until you go through the gateway in Pinedale. Welcome to your game on drugs where [[{{MindScrew}} rainbows, dragons, giant insects, mushrooms, and ladders popping up out of the ground and turning into giant purple people-eaters at any moment are the norm.]] :)
* OffModel - Anatomy, posing, and facial feature distortion vary depending from sprite to sprite.
* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass - Only in the first dungeon. Block puzzles ahoy.
* {{Overheating}} - Several items do this. The Snowflake. The Medallion. Even the Torch.
* PointOfNoReturn - the last minecart segment counts as this.
* RespawnPoint
* SaveThePrincess - Merlin tries to do this at the beginning only to find the girl is fine later... then has to do it for real in the climax.
* ScriptedEvent
* StoryDrivenInvulnerability - That Giant Spider? You can't touch him until the rematch. Same with the Shadow King.
* TeasedWithAwesome - The [[{{SymbolSwearing}} $@#in']] Thunder Spell.
* TemporaryBulkChange - When you use the balloon item to climb up cliffs and get out of the ocean.
* ThreeQuartersView
* TopDownView
* TotallyRadical - Merlin treats skating on his... mining... board as such.
* UndergroundLevel - The mines are a sinister maze that will get old very quickly.
* VoiceGrunting - All characters "speak" this way. Sometimes to an unsettling extent.
* WarpZone
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway? - The Bubble Wand.

* CombiningMecha - Sort of. The goblins, small as they are, generally band together to form larger monsters like hogs, evil trees, and homocidal shrubbery.

The game was developed by {{Westwood Studios}} and published by {{Virgin Interactive}}. Frank Klepacki composed the music.

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway? - Two words. Bubble Wand.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny - One of the goblins guarding a log near the beginning of the game, challenges Merlin to cross a line, backs up, does it again, then splits. It's obvious the goblin's acting tough, but is clearly afraid of the blonde pretty boy.
** To a lesser extent (and annoying example), any time a goblin kicks you in the shins because you're in the way.

* GameBreaker - Thunder which destroys virtually anything on-screen, though you lose it a bit later after you get it. The Torch is also this to a lesser degree. Plus, equip the Hourglass with any other weapon and you're practically unstoppable. A glitch in the Comb item also causes some weird invulneribility too.

* ThatOneLevel - The [[{{MinecartMadness}} minecart levels.]] [[{{RuleOfThree}} There are three!]]

* UnfortunateCharacterDesign - Oh those freaky souless faces... Merlin, the wizard, and the Shadow King are prime examples.
** Apparently, the devs couldn't help putting laugh lines on every human character, but because of the low resolution, said characters end up looking quite chubby in the face.

* NightmareFuel - Some monster designs tend to fall under this intentional or not.
** That and its DerangedAnimation.