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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.

Wizards & Warriors (Rare Ltd., 1987)

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 17:52:30 +0000

The classic story recurs throughout mythology, folklore, legends, and even more modern tales: the brave champion defeats the evil wizard and rescues the princess. Hell, even Super Mario Brothers follows the theme loosely! Along the way, the hero battles baddies, finds goodies, and maybe even learns some kind of moral lesson. Or not.

Released in 1987 by the British software firm Rare, Ltd., Wizards & Warriors fits into that mould neatly. It was another of my formative experiences with console games; it and its sequel, IronSword, were among the first cluster of NES titles I acquired. The original, however, is the one I’ll be focusing on today. The follow-up to Rare’s first NES title, Slalom, Wizards & Warriors chronicles the struggle of the brave knight Kuros against the wizard Malkil. You see, Malkil has pulled a typical “evil wizard” move: he’s kidnapped the poor princess. He’s absconded to his tower deep in the forest with her, and Kuros has to go the long way round to reach them.

Kuros eschews his armor and dresses a bit more casually for the box art.

Wizards & Warriors got stellar reviews when it was released, but I’ll be up front with you: this game can be hard to love. Kuros has all the agility and poise of a wet gym sock, and his feet/head are more effective at dispatching enemies than his sword is sometimes. Thankfully, if you poke around a bit, you can find things like wands and daggers that increase your lethality in combat. The dagger is indispensable, as it behaves like a boomerang and obviates your need to get super close to anything. Later, you can swap this out for a more damaging axe. You can also find other magical items, like a feather that makes you fall more slowly, a shield that helps reduce the damage you take, and specific items you’ll need to more easily handle the bosses. If you get hurt (which you definitely will), there’s food lying around like in so many of these games.

I’m not even going to attempt to quantify or classify the enemies in this game. The variety is staggering. While some of them may look stupid, all of the monsters can hurt you pretty badly if you’re not careful. The first level is particularly insulting, as bird after bird assaults you simply for being there. As you progress, things get more appropriate, featuring the typical fantasy goblins, gargoyles and spooks. The difficulty curve is insane, but once you get the hang of how you’re supposed to play, the challenge scales well. As you progress underground and then up to the tower, both the terrain and the horde of baddies get gradually harder to cope with. The tower gets especially hectic, with a bunch of things that are halfway between monster and trap barring your way. A lot of the bosses behave in a similar fashion to one another, with a few differences or improvements in strategy. Basically, if you can “follow the bouncing ball” during a sing-along, you can defeat the bosses in this game. After each boss, Kuros finds a maiden bound to the ceiling and cuts her down. He then just sort of walks off, something I’ve always found kind of funny.

Stone cold.

“Listen, lady, I got no time for this.”

None of the graphics are terribly complicated, but you can’t count that against Wizards & Warriors too badly; no NES graphics were too spectacular just yet. I mentioned some of the enemies looking goofy as hell, and they certainly do, but you can at least tell what they’re supposed to be. Where the visuals slack off, the sound picks up; the music is minimalist at times, but will stick in your head. The sound effects are standard for an NES game in 1987, but they’re bright and purposeful without being annoying.

The game spawned two sequels for the NES. The first one, IronSword, is absolutely amazing, at least when compared to its predecessor. Gameplay is the same at its core, but the music, sound, and graphics are much improved. The third game, Kuros: Visions of Power, seems like it was rushed and slapped together. There was also an entry into the series for the Game Boy, Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear. (I’m not sure how we skipped right to “X,” because there aren’t any I’m missing. If I’m wrong about that, you readers are welcome to email me and I’ll gladly stand corrected.)

As much as I’ve talked this game down, it’s a pretty significant title in terms of historical value. The gaming publications of the time gave it favorable reviews, and I won’t pretend there’s nothing good about it; Wizards & Warriors can seem at first like an overly-saturated crapfest, but hiding in there is a solid, challenging game that requires a little problem-solving on top of a good virtual sword-arm.

Tune in next time, RetroManiacs!