My submission for As a kid, The Neverending Story was like a religion to me. I had the book and a VHS copy of the first film, which I nearly wore completely out. I saw the sequel when it came out in theaters, and for a while, I was convinced that it was better than the first movie. Oh, the folly of childhood... Not long after that, I learned there was a game based on the sequel when a friend booted it up on his Amiga. The first level I saw was the "3D" flying stage and I was completely entranced. Bear in mind I was an 8-year-old who thus far, had only had exposure to NES games with 8-bit graphics and chiptunes. There was a feeling of immersion that I'd never felt in a game before while chasing the dragon around the canyons. It was bittersweet because I thought the game was awesome, but I didn't own an Amiga, so I went home both enlightened and disheartened. Today, as a jaded adult, I can evaluate things more objectively, which is why I now see that The Neverending Story II movie and game were not nearly as grand as I once held them to be, although far from terrible. I never saw past that flying stage until this playthrough, but it turns out I wasn't missing much. Grammatical errors abound and the difficulty level is a bit too steep in some areas. Not difficult as in challenging gameplay (you know, the RIGHT kind of difficult), but difficult as in awkward controls and a sort of arbitrary level design...making a couple particular levels a nightmare to navigate (the pitfalls in boring Silver City and that dreadful canyon chase come to mind). I still have to say that certain visual elements were kind of impressive, like the 3D effects in the canyon and tower stages, and the parallax scrolling in the Orchid Forest. The music is also pretty cool, but overall, it's a mediocre game with only a few redeeming qualities, much like its cinematic counterpart was. And concerning the film, as flawed as it was, I can't bring myself to completely disparage it. Even though it is admittedly pretty bad from technical and screenwriting standpoints, I still have a slight nostalgic attachment to it since it represents a fair portion of my childhood. It still maintained a small modicum of whimsy (enough to enchant my 8-year-old counterpart), and that was probably due to Robert Folk's brilliant musical score more than anything else.
