Hercules (video game)

Hercules (also known as Hercules Action Game and as Disney's Action Game Featuring Hercules and Disney's Action Game Featuring Disney's Hercules in Europe) is a 1997 video game for the PlayStation, PC, and Game Boy, which is based on the 1997 Disney animated feature film of the same name. It was released on July 3, 1997, in North America and on November 14, 1997, in Europe. In 2010, the PlayStation version was made available on the PlayStation Store.
==Plot==
Disney's Hercules follows the plot of the movie, where super-powerful Hercules finds out that he is the son of the Greek God Zeus. In order to prove himself as a true hero and sit alongside the other Gods at Mount Olympus, Hercules must rescue the damsel in distress, Megara, from the centaur Nessus. However, Hades, the god of the underworld, who is not making things easy for Hercules, by sending fierce titans after him.
==Gameplay==
thumb|250px|Hercules fights Nessus the Centaur (PC Version)
The game is mainly two-dimensional, although in many missions, the player can walk to other planes via pathways or stairs. There are ten levels and three difficulty modes: Beginner, Medium, and Herculean. The last two levels are playable only on Medium and Herculean difficulties. There are three rush levels in the game in which the player must run forward through the map and avoid obstacles without being able to stop or fight. The player's health is measured in the energy bar shown in the upper left corner for normal levels or bottom left for rush levels and as Hercules takes damage, it will decrease. Once the energy bar is empty, the player loses a life. The energy bar can be increased by picking up Hercules Action Figures and the energy can be replenished by drinking Herculade cups found throughout the game. If Hercules loses all of his lives, the game is over. The player's main weapon is the sword, although he can also punch, but this is a much more difficult way to defeat enemies. Weapon powerups, known as Gifts of the Gods, can be found throughout the game, consisting of the Lightning Sword (shoots lightning any direction Hercules aims when selected and fired), Fireball Sword (shoots fireballs that seek out onscreen enemies when selected and fired), and the Sonic Sword (affects enemy targets at close range with a circular sonic blast when selected and fired). There is also an invincibility powerup, found in the game in the form of a helmet, which grants the player a few seconds of invulnerability when activated. thumb|250px|A rush level (PC Version) Powerups have limited action, and once their energy has depleted, they can no longer be used. In many levels, there will be hidden letters that if all collected, will form the word HERCULES and will allow the player to spawn directly at the next level, instead of starting the game all over from the beginning. There are also four hidden vases in each mission, that upon collection, will give the player a secret password for the current level, which he can later use at the game start screen to spawn at the level from which the vases were collected. During the game, the player will face many bosses, most of which can't be defeated by conventional fighting and require the player to perform special actions to pass. Among the enemies that Hercules will face are: Nessus the Centaur, the Minotaur, the Harpies, the Hydra, the Gorgon, and Hades. Other enemies and obstacles include training dummies, Stymphalian birds, sharks, thugs, other centaurs, griffins, skeletons, sphinxes, ghosts, and dragons. Several Titans and a Cyclops also appear in the game, but the player does not fight them directly.
==Technical notes==
The PC version was released in 1997 for Windows 95. Although the game appears to run flawlessly under Windows XP, users with newer graphic cards may experience image distortions with the low game resolution of 320x240. In such cases, players may want to switch the game resolution to higher modes (480x360 or 640x480), but these suffer from the lack of full-screen support. Graphics in PS version are slightly better, there are some special lighting and color effects such as lightning (like in Medusa's lair), fog simulation (like in Centaurs forest) and fade effects. These effects are not included in PC version, probably because it runs under 256 colors. However, the PS version's game play is much slower than the PC version's, and it has more loading times before entering each level and after losing a life.
==Voice cast==
*Tate Donovan - Hercules
*Danny DeVito - Philoctetes
*Susan Egan - Megara
*Paul Shaffer - Hermes
*James Woods - Hades
*Bobcat Goldthwait - Pain
*Matt Frewer - Panic
*Rip Torn - Zeus
*Lillias White - Calliope the Muse of Epics
*Cheryl Freeman - Melpomene the Muse of Tragedy
*Vaneese Y Thomas - Terpsichore the Muse of Dance
*Roz Ryan - Thalia the Muse of Comedy
*Paddi Edwards - Atropos the Fate
*Amanda Plummer - Clotho the Fate
*Carole Shelley - Lachesis the Fate
*Patrick Pinney - Cyclops, Rock Titan
*Corey Burton - Rock Titan
*Jim Cummings - Nessus the Centaur, Lava Titan
==Gallery==
Hercules video game advertisement.jpg
Centaur.1.jpg|Centaur character.
Hercules-special-power-lightening-ring-500x375.jpg
Hercules-special-power-lightening-500x375.jpg
Hercules-screen-water-500x375.jpg
Hercules-punch-start-500x375.jpg
Hercules-punch-after-breaking-rock-500x375.jpg
Hercules-jump-branch-500x372.jpg
Hercules-finding-the-tree-branch-500x372.jpg
Hercules-centaurs-throwing-rocks-500x375.jpg
Hercules-branch-swing-500x372.jpg
Hercules-alternative-path-500x375.jpg
Hercules-alternative-path-2-500x372.jpg
Hercules-after-swing-500x372.jpg
Hercules-4.jpg
Hercules-3.jpg
Hercules-2 (2).jpg
Hercules-1.jpg
Snapshot_16.png
==Trivia==
*The game has a few exclusive cutscenes that do not appear in the movie, such as the game over screens.
*While Medusa only had a brief appearance in the film during the Zero to Hero montage, she is a boss in the video game. The fight even takes place in her own lair exclusive to the game.
*Gameplay Hints:
**In the stage Centaur's Forest, you can knock back the boulders thrown by the centaurs with either a ducking punch or charging an uppercut.
**Also in Centaur's Forest, some of the trees at the beginning can be climbed on. 
**When fighting Nessus, you need to avoid his attacks while standing on the leftmost ledge until he turns around. This will allow you to jump on and ride him; depleting his health bar.
**Hercules can ground pound by pressing down mid jump. Some stages feature cracks on the ground hinting that they can be ground pounded. 
Category:Hercules
Category:1997 video games
Category:Disney animated features canon video games
Category:PlayStation games
Category:Game Boy games
Category:Computer games
Category:PC games