El Viento is awesome. Some aspects are sloppily-designed but overall it's IMO Wolf Team's best Genesis game. Very well-paced, lots of neat details, and quite fun to shoot through.
I actually like the pixelated explosions. It's lovely when the tiniest thing dies and blows up like the death star.
Great things about Beyond Oasis
-Perfect length. Short game certainly but each play-through offers new and different ways for the player to challenge themselves. Go for 100% collection, speedrun, no level-ups, no food or fairy healing, etc.
-Superb mechanics. For a beatemup, mechanics are extremely important. Every hit in BO carries the proper amount of feedback and helps to make combat very satisfying.
-Great optional areas....well except for the Efreet track. The 100 floor battle dungeon, the hidden area in the beach, and the hard-level platforming section are all very cool, and carry worthwhile rewards.
-Enemy variety. Multiple flavors of soldiers, zombies, furry...horned..things, raptors, giants, bees, etc. Not only do the enemies look different but they also have their own maneuvers and the player can't approach many of them the same way. They work as well as one could want from a zelda/streets of rage hybrid.
-Thoughtful design. The spirits in BO have multiple uses and can be summoned from many different things. Efreet for example can be summoned from any source of fire, including the explosion from a soldier's bomb or an omega sword sitting on the floor. Need a quick boost? The fairy can be summoned from a slime. Some enemies react differently to fire. The soldiers have a variety of death screams (even a female one?).
While subtle, these elements add life to the world.
Always a sucker for games with nice boss sprites.
