Out of this World

Out of This World on Genesis/Mega Drive is the 1993 console conversion of Éric Chahi’s landmark sci-fi adventure, originally released on Amiga in 1991 as Another World. North American cartridges use the Out of This World title, while the European Mega Drive release keeps Another World, but both send the same unlikely hero, young physicist Lester Knight Chaykin, from a storm-lashed laboratory to a hostile alien planet in the blink of a lightning-charged experiment.

The opening makes the premise feel immediate rather than explained away. Lester arrives at his underground lab, starts Project 23’s particle-acceleration test, and is caught in a violent electrical accident. A few moments later, he is underwater in an unfamiliar wilderness, fighting to breathe and survive. The game gives little dialogue and no conventional status display to soften the landing; its alien setting, creatures, prisons, machinery, and silences have to be read through action.

That spare approach is central to Out of This World’s identity. Chahi designed, programmed, and illustrated the original, using polygon-based animation to create its distinctive moving silhouettes. The result is a cinematic platform adventure in which scenes flow into one another and every leap, sprint, swim, or desperate retreat carries narrative weight. There is no score counter or life meter constantly competing for attention, so the world itself has to communicate danger.

The Genesis/Mega Drive version translates that design to Sega’s three-button controller. The directional pad handles Lester’s movement and context-sensitive climbing, swimming, and device use, while the face buttons separate jump, running or interaction, and the weapon functions acquired later. Once Lester takes an alien laser pistol, careful timing becomes essential: it can fire normally, create a protective force field when held briefly, or release a more powerful charged blast when held longer. Encounters are short, exacting puzzles rather than attritional firefights.

The port is more than the original Amiga program placed on a cartridge. The Amiga release relied on a joystick’s directional movements and single fire button, whereas the Genesis mapping gives its acrobatic movement and weapon handling dedicated pad inputs. It also belongs to the expanded run of versions that followed the original release, with the extra citadel or training-camp sequence, additional threats, and more checkpoint opportunities introduced for the later editions. The extra section puts Lester and his alien ally under pressure together, strengthening a relationship the game otherwise conveys almost entirely without words.

It also stands apart from the Super Nintendo edition in small but meaningful ways. Both console versions preserve the extended material and add music during gameplay beyond the Amiga version’s more selective musical use, yet their controller layouts are tailored to their hardware: the SNES manual assigns attack and running to Y and jumping to B, while Genesis uses its own A, B, and C arrangement. The console introductions are likewise framed through a brief journal-style text before the familiar laboratory sequence, a presentation absent from the original Amiga start.

What has not changed is the game’s severe rhythm. Lester can be killed instantly by a creature, a projectile, a fall, or a poorly judged environmental hazard, and the answer is rarely signposted. Progress comes from observation, repetition, and learning how a scene’s moving parts fit together. Password-based continuation lets players resume from later areas, but every new screen still demands attention: an enemy force field may need a charged shot, a locked route may need a power circuit disabled, and an ally may need help before the way forward opens.

Out of This World remains a striking Genesis/Mega Drive adventure because it trusts the player to inhabit its strange place instead of explaining it. It is a compact, tense journey through alien wilderness, a brutal underground city, and a sequence of escapes that feel staged like a wordless science-fiction film. For players exploring the 16-bit library, this version offers a distinctive way to experience Chahi’s original vision: a regional-title twin of Another World whose distinctive controls, added console material, and urgent atmosphere make every successful escape feel earned.