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IronSword: Wizards & Warriors II (Acclaim/Rare/Zippo, 1989)

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 02:57:41 +0000

Sometime back in 2015 I told you about Wizards & Warriors, a well-remembered but ultimately so-so sword and sorcery title for the NES. The game did well at the retail counter, and was one of the titles that helped Rare establish itself as a name in NES game development. The whole concept of the sequel comes from wanting to cash back in on the original’s success; W&W‘s sequel was definitely a better game, and allowed its developers to make out like bandits. Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II is what the first one should have been: challenging without being ridiculous, and full of detail.

This time, Rare shook hands with Acclaim (for distribution/publishing) and a fellow UK company called Zippo Games to get the job done. The result is a game that plays very much like its prequel, but in many ways outstrips it. Rare was pretty much hands-off, simply licensing the concept and codebase to Zippo and allowing them to work mostly unsupervised to develop the finished product. Zippo had worked developing games for the C64 and Amiga, and felt the NES was a bit of a step backward; They eventually decided that while it wasn’t as advanced graphically, Nintendo’s console was set up to produce better-playing games than a home computer of the time. The Pickford brothers (the men behind Zippo) paid particular attention to making the game as graphically impressive as possible, transferring black and white sketches into character maps for the game. Many of the larger entities (bosses, etc.) are done by using the whole screen in conjunction with as few moving sprites as possible. This was meant to give the impression that the whole thing was alive.

Here we see the original Pickford sketch of the wind boss, and its translation into the game itself. The bottom image shows all the parts that were sprite-based, while all others were treated as background.

The story for this second installment of Wizards & Warriors pits the same protagonist against the same antagonist; Again we’re shown a nearly nude Kuros on the cover, this time depicted by the now-famous 90s model Fabio. True to form, Kuros puts on some clothes to battle Malkil a second time.

Dinner tray for a belt, looks like he’s gonna hit you with the flat part of the sword… Fabio at his absolute finest.

It’s not made perfectly clear what Malkil’s up to this time, but he’s pitted the elements themselves (air, fire, earth, water) against the bold warrior. Kuros must assemble the pieces of the legendary IronSword in order to battle Malkil on IceFire Mountain. To make it there, he must move through the domains of each element, presenting a golden object to each domain’s animal king to progress further. As the game goes on, Kuros will have to learn spells, get better equipment, and also do his best not to get his ass turned inside out by pretty much every living thing that isn’t an innkeeper. Thankfully, you’re not quite as much of a wet end as in the first game, and the hitmapping seems to be a bit better. You still flip and flop and fall like a ragdoll, but you’re a bit more in control of what you do when that’s not happening.

You’ll do a lot of falling, sometimes great distances, as you get used to the game… but this time you get to see Kuros’s dumb face while he suffers, at least until you find the helmet.

Speaking of innkeepers, that’s one of the novel concepts added to the game. Each level has an inn where you can buy food, keys, and sometimes a spell or other item. Food plays its time-honored digital role of replenishing your health, while keys do… well, what keys do. Usually the other item for sale is one you need to move forward, so there is a small element of “grinding” present in IronSword. Lastly, you can also gamble in the inn, winning or losing money in a game where you predict which cup a tiny skull will fall into. One of my favorite little details of this game is that when you walk into an inn with no money, the innkeeper grabs you by the seat of your pants and throws you out. It’s a nice touch of realism.

“THAT’S RIGHT, A LITTLE TASTE OF VEGAS, RIGHT HERE ON ICEFIRE MOUNTAIN. STEP RIGHT UP AND LOSE YOUR MONEY.”

Magic plays a strong role in the game. Some spells are purely utilitarian, like a waterspout that lifts you to high places. Others have use in combat, like the Asp’s Tongue spell that slows down enemies. Four of the spells are necessary to harm the four elemental bosses, and these must be found (usually in the second half of a given domain). You’ll also find things like helmets, better weapons (including, eventually, the titular IronSword), and treasure.

Like, have a nice day, man.

As much as the animal lords would like to help you, they do nothing to keep their subjects from constantly assaulting you at every angle. The very first level is full of eagles/hawks/whatever that seem to hate you for no reason, and the list of enemies just gets worse from there. The bosses are huge affairs that are mostly background imagery, but the effect is appreciable. Each boss seems incredibly large and intimidating.

As stated before, Zippo sought to push the limits with graphics on the NES; it’s arguable that they succeeded. Their experience with Amiga and C64 titles shows in this product. The music, composed by notable video game composer David Wise, is incredibly cool. It has a great thickness to it, and there’s a few tracks that really make you want to bop your head. I particularly like “Stage Theme 2.” You could rap over that. Well, I couldn’t, but you might be able to.

I grant Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II 9 out of 10. It’s a huge improvement on its prequel, a visually and musically impressive title, and one of the games worth adding to any NES enthusiast’s collection.

See you mid-month, and I’ve got a special article coming in late October about one of my favorite classic TV shows.

Golden Axe (Sega, 1989)

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 07:24:15 +0000

Sword & Sorcery. Known for buff swordsmen, scantily-clad warrior-women, and evil magic, this sub-genre of fantasy held pop culture in its jaws in the 70s and 80s. It never really went away; Robert E. Howard’s “Conan” character is still popular today as a poster-boy for the aesthetic and the ideal. It offered us a darker, grittier (but also sometimes much sillier) alternative to the elves & dragons we’re all familiar with. What started with fiction and art from men like Howard and Frazetta soon blossomed into film and TV… it’s no surprise a few video games got made.

Golden Axe (called “Fighting Axe” in Japan) fits the mold of sword & sorcery, and it’s no disappointment. Developed by the same team who created Altered Beast, Golden Axe was released in 1989 for both the arcade (June) and the Mega Drive/Genesis (December). In researching this article, I took a good look at both; the Mega Drive version is largely unchanged from the arcade, but it contains one more level, a new ending, and a play mode that allows you and a friend to chop one another to bits instead of the bad guys. It is this version I have focused on, as it seems to be the one folks are most familiar with.

The plot isn’t too complex: some jerk named Death Adder has kidnapped the King and his daughter, and has begun plundering the land of Yuria like it was his own personal playground. Enter Ax (the swordsman), Tyris (the swordswoman) and Gillis (the badass dwarf with an axe as big as he is), three fledgling heroes with vendettas of their own against Death Adder. Each player selects one of these characters to plow through the minions of evil and set things right by putting Death Adder down like the mangy dog he is. The game leads them across various levels, including a village built on the back of a giant turtle. Overall, Golden Axe plays like a big medieval beat-em-up, not too different mechanics-wise from games like Double Dragon or Streets of Rage.

Each character is about as competent as their two counterparts in hand-to-hand combat, but what sets them apart is the type of magic they use. The dwarf creates lightning with his spells, while Tyris hurls fire and Ax summons up the earth itself. The magic itself isn’t terribly versatile, but you only really need it for one thing: to pound the crap out of enemies in a tight spot. The spells are fueled by little blue pots you gather by kicking around tiny men who run around with gunny sacks. You’d think I’m making that up, but I swear I’m serious. These tiny men can and do exact their revenge between levels, however, by trying to steal the blue pots back from you as you rest.

Sneaky little bastard.

Your bigger concern is the veritable army of brutes arrayed against you. It all starts off gently enough, with piecemeal-armored men wielding clubs and maces; things get a bit more serious once the skeletons, animated statues, and armored warriors twice your size start showing up. Some of these ruffians sit astride strange animals, which luckily enough, you can usually steal when you unseat the rider. Some simply attack with their tails, but many also breathe fire.

It is undoubtedly better to the the breather than it is to be breathed on.

There is a lot of palette-swapping going on in Golden Axe, but it is used well and isn’t done sloppily. Both the background graphics and the sprites are pretty crisp and detailed, and while the animation’s pretty simple, it gets the point across. There are no sweeping cinematics or long cutscenes; the game focuses mostly on the action, but you are given a short storyline advancement between levels. The sound is pretty good, with digitized voices featured prominently (though really only in the form of death screams). The music steals the show more than anything. It is pulse pounding, action-oriented, and powerfully heroic. The intro theme and 1st level music stand out to me as exceptional, but the entire soundtrack is excellent.

The game spawned two sequels for the Mega Drive/Genesis AND two in the arcade, as well as a couple of spinoff games (with the character Ax getting his own game for the Sega Game Gear). While I’d hardly call it a franchise, Golden Axe is certainly more than a drop in the bucket. It has held lasting appeal for console and arcade fanatics, and is notable as an important crossover between fantasy/RPG aesthetics and the classic beat-em-up play style.

If you’d like to play, Internet Archive has a free browser version available.

Later in the month, we’ll look at some other fantasy-themed games for June. Until next time, RetroFans!