Roger Deforest & Vance Kozik - Spiritual Warfare (1992)

 

Composer: Roger Deforest & Vance Kozik
Console: Genesis, MS-DOS, NES
Game Release Date: 1992-xx-xx 
Bootleg Release Date: 2021-05-10
Ripper: Doommaster1994
Runtime: 5:45, 6 Tracks

I'm annoyed going into this post because I found out while researching that I likely played the worst version of the game. Well, before I get to that a bit about this game. In the early 90s, Christian game developer Wisdom Tree, Inc. was popping off releasing lots of bootlegs for everything. Nearly all of the games are not fondly remembered by gamers but Wisdom Tree had some gems in the rough. 

Back in the late 2000s I saw the Bible Game episode for AVGN. The video covered a bunch of Wisdom Tree games but one in particular caught my attention. That was Spiritual Warfare. It ended up being one of the first games I ever emulated and while I didn't beat it at the time I loved it. Sure it was a Zelda knockoff but I didn't care. Hell, even beating it a few months ago I would actually put it above the original Zelda (though the BS-Zelda Remake is better than both). In December of last year I decided to give the entire game a retry and beat it early January. I've been off a Christian game kick lately and it just fit. 

It was good enough that I seriously considered buying a physical copy. As of 2018 it seems that Wisdom Tree was still selling copies of the game but when I checked the store wasn't operational. I sent them an e-mail months ago and never got a response. 

But enough about my run. How is the game? Spiritual Warfare is a top-down adventure game in a similar vein to the first Legend of Zelda. You play as an unnamed protagonist on a mission to stop Satan who has busted out of hell. In order to do so you need to collect the fruits of the spirit and obtain the armor of the holy spirit. Once you have all the equipment you enter hell and defeat Satan. 
The fruits and armor are scattered around the entire world in ghettos, dock areas, rich parts of town, industrial parks and more. There is even an item located outside of the games boundaries in an endless ocean. 

Instead of a sword you throw fruits at your enemies. Upon "redeeming" some of them a demon emerges which will try to chase you down. You need to take it out too. The city has a massive demonic possession problem and it is near anarchy in most places. You also have bombs that can destroy some parts of the landscape. Occasionally an angel will descend from Heaven to offer you some health and lives if you can complete their pop quiz. 

Among the various Christian games I have been playing lately Spiritual Warfare was very enjoyable. It's definitely better than The War In Heaven gameplay-wise but I don't think I would it above Ominous Horizons. Maybe in a couple of years I will revisit this again on a different console. 

According to MobyGames the music was composed by Roger Deforest & Vance Kozik. There isn't much information on both. Both were likely American programmers and composers that worked with Wisdom Tree and Color Dreams in the 90s and they have credits all over those games. I found a twitter account from a Roger Deforest that could be him but I don't know for sure. 

The game only has a few of songs that play. There is an overworld theme and then some end themes and intro. It's extremely short. I probably wouldn't have posted up the soundtrack if this wasn't an OST focused blog. I guess one could get annoyed by the constant looping of the same song but it never got to me. It was alright. 

So on to the versions of the game. At the time I played it I only thought this was available on NES. However, as of today I have learned the game is also available on MS-DOS and Genesis. Both the Genesis version and MS-DOS versions look much better. I don't know if there is any extra stuff in the other versions but if you are going to try this then I’d recommend using the MS-DOS version. That said, the NES version is still good. It just isn't the definitive version in my opinion. 

This specific rip was done by the people over at HCS64. I simply converted the files to a more common format. The Genesis version uses more instruments than the NES chiptune. 

Download: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvUFZnQlhLcFIjQnFTTUdEWlRIRmxOTmZJX3gtUXdZMTJrQ2VLZkM4OWE1QlB1UG5CaVJpVQ==

p@ss: spiritualwarfare