This is not a new review. It is a revamped review from the Kev and Spike archives. Original review date is 11/12/1995

Ah yes! the times never change do they? Even in ye olden days people were still wild, and princess were still getting kidnapped! Yep Princess Marina has been kidnapped. For what reason? (She is an absolute babe? that would be good enough reason for me - Kev) Nobody seems to either know or care. Nobody except you, that is! You have heard of the kidnapping too and you have lost your mind and decided to go out and bring her back. Your motive? Nobody seems to know or care either!

A swift blow to the neck executed.

Now you are a man with many talents, Swordfighting is one of them. You can pull out so many tricks out of your hat (literally) that if your opponant makes one slight mistake, He will hit the floor like a ton of concrete blocks so fast that if you blinked, you would be sure to miss it. (did anyone notice that on the C64 version when the man kicks the bloke to the floor, it actually looks like he is kicking the air - poor animation, ah well CPC does it better - Kev) Now all this sounds very well I hear you say, but what is so differant about this game? Well there are some really cool effects for one thing. Especially when you chop your opponents head off (or vice versa) and the blood pumps out of the neck of the victim. (He he, I love it - Kev) And to add insult to injury a little green hobbit comes along and drags your carcass out of the fighting hall. He also kicks your head out of the way when he exits. (It's Spike, allegedly - Kev)

When you have gameplay like this and graphics like these, It's very hard to go wrong. Well executed sprites that move just when you want them to and not otherwise are impressive to say the least. The tune can be haunting at times, which matches the game perfectly. The only gripe that I have about this game is that lot of people are pretty fed up with Street Fighter type games (and before you jump on me, I'll admit Barbarian came out first) and therefore, this one will put some people off. (Ok, it aint as gory as Mortal Kombat, but this came first - Kev)

But still this is a game of exceptional quality and if you don't buy it for the actual game, get it for the novelty.

THE BOTTOM LINE:
Top notch graphics and thumbs up for the sound.
One that will take a while to master the moves...
... and then perfect them to progress through the game.
One you won't put down in a hurry.
THE END RESULT: 84%