Developed by Opera House and published by Genki in Japan, Sage’s Creation in North America, Sega in Europe, and Tec Toy in Brazil in 1991, Devilish is an excellent Breakout/Arkanoid variant where the aim is to bounce a ball to the end of a scrolling level within a strict time limit.

You control two paddles (or ‘bats’, or whatever you want to call them; they’re supposed to be the Prince and Princess of some far-flung fantasy land that’ve been turned into paddles by a “Jealous Devil” called Gamma), and you can change them into different formations, and also move the top paddle up and down. The aim is to prevent the ball from falling out of the bottom of the screen while continually moving upwards – and sometimes sideways – as quickly as you can.

Slowing you down are a variety of obstacles and enemies, some of which take multiple hits to destroy, deflect the ball, or can even swallow the ball to waste precious time.

Occasionally you’ll come across a treasure chest, and if you hit one of these with the ball they’ll reveal a glowing power-up that’ll fall down the screen and can be caught by the bats. If you manage to catch a power-up it’ll instantly activate a time-limited effect that should help you push forward more quickly. Some power-ups turn the ball into an unstoppable hazard-smasher that instantly destroys any obstacle; others will explode all on-screen blocks and hazards, or give you some extra time.

What I like about Devilish is that there are techniques you can learn to help you move quicker to the end of a level. Like: moving the top paddle upwards and keeping the ball bouncing quickly off the bat into a line of tiles, clearing them in less time. Or even pushing the ball forward to make it go quicker. I also like how the game innovates on the ball and paddle idea, scrolling the screen around to introduce progression through a level. And finally, I like the way that Devilish allows you to adapt the way you play by reconfiguring paddle formations, and adjusting the speed of paddle movement. Devilish takes an old game idea and improves on it immeasurably, and the end result is a very intriguing and playable game.

Devilish has eight different stages (Graveyard, Under Passage, Waterfalls, Old Castle, Prairie, Volcano, World of Ice and Evil Temple), and can be played at three difficulty levels (these adjust the amount of time you have to complete a stage, and sometimes also change the number of hazards). You can choose one to four lives per game (although why you’d want less than the maximum, I don’t know), and the game also has a time trial mode where you have to beat stages in the quickest time.

Personally, I love Devilish. I think it’s fun, innovative, and a real ‘hidden gem’ on the Game Gear. I’d never played it before until recently and was pleasantly surprised by it. In fact, that’s exactly what I’m looking for when I play old games for the first time – to be surprised by something great that I’ve never seen before.

A Megadrive/Genesis sequel, called Devilish: The Next Possession, was released in 1992, and a second sequel was later released for the Nintendo DS in 2005, called Devilish: Ball Bounder.

More: Devilish on Wikipedia