Overview: 9.2 - The main premise behind the game Gemfire is, Princess Robyn has gotten fed up with her overlord father the king.  She decides that the only way to set things right is to release her father's collection of gems across the land.  Each of the gems holds power over a wizard or in the case of the ruby a dragon.  The gems are dispersed to most of the families and the stage is set for one of the king's offspring to dethrone him and reunite the gems and the country as a whole.

Graphics: 7 - This game was available across 3 systems and played pretty similarly on each one, however the graphics were just slightly better on the SNES than on the Genesis version.  The sprites that showed during each battle were well drawn and often provided a satisfying depiction of a large army wiping out a smaller one.  There aren't a lot of animations other than the battle cut scenes.  Most of the graphics are pictures showing a glimpse of what's going on across the land such as a Unicorn empowering your chosen leader or a banshee bringing an omen of death.  There are also short scenes depicting seasonal events on the map such as a skeleton that circles the map and indicates a plague or a fire ravaging the land.  

Sound: 8 - The sound on the SNES version is clearly superior to the Genesis and NES versions.  The songs are repetitive, however they are also catchy simple tunes that you'll find yourself humming later.  The music in general fits the game well and adds to the overall atmosphere of what's going on.  The sound effects are also nicely done with clear positive and negative event alarms as well as the battle sounds being appropriate.  In battle you mainly have 4 sounds the swords tink, the arrows give a whoop, the horses charge with a drum beat, and the 5th unit can carry one of those sounds or a blasting sound depending on the type that is being employed.

Addictiveness 10 - This game is quite simple in that you will pick up how to play it very quickly.  Once you have learned how to play the game well enough to amass large armies there is a certain satisfaction that comes with being the big dog on the map when you aren't supposed to be.  For this reason I like to start new games as the families that have no gems.  The story makes no bones about the fact that the other rulers have generally written those that didn't receive any gems off as a non threat.  When you start a game with one of these families the vassals to the lord also show no signs of hope.  Taking one of these families and bringing down the king is a lot of fun and you can also employ different tactics such as allying with other families or cornering a smaller family and getting them to surrender taking all that they possess.

Story: 7 - As covered previously you will play as one of the king's sons to take back the crown through reuniting the gems.  The story portion is fairly short and once you are actually in game the story that plays out is only one of who holds authority over which lands.  The story is really only told through the start and end of the game, and it would've been nice to see some in game story progress.  One of the shining points to me with the story that's open to interpretation by whoever plays the game is that this game leaves a lot to the players imagination.  You can make up whatever story you'd like by imagining how the events would play out if it was really happening.  I know that sounds disneyish, but what I mean is it's kind of like when you read a book and every person imagines the characters looking slightly different.

Depth: 9 - As mentioned above you can play the story in a variety of ways.  You can also play 4 different scenarios each with different families to choose from that are unique to that scenario.  How you go about recapturing the gems is up to you as mentioned you can ally with other families or just target a specific family.  My favorite way to play is to give a lot of food to the people and inspire their loyalty.  When you do this you will have positive events happen that can make your commanders much more powerful as well as helping you in your early development stages with added soldiers, food, or a special 5th unit called pastha. 

Difficulty 5 - This game is admittedly easy.  Once you get the basic concept of buying and selling your food at the right times depending on the prices you will quickly amass armies that even the king's dragon can't stand up to.  The game is so easy in fact that the player will sometimes need to handicap themselves a bit by starting with no 5th unit just to make the game a bit challenging.  Another thing to do for a challenge is a speed run to see how fast you can finish the game. 

Conclusion - This game is a lot of fun and is simple enough to where you don't have to be particularly good at video games to enjoy it.  You can pick it up and put it down easily.  I do wish they had made a few tweaks to the game overall especially in the difficulty department, but overall it is still a satisfying experience that's worth checking out.