Ironsword / Wizards & Warriors X

[ColecoFan1981]

Did you know that Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear (GB) was released shortly after Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (NES)? The latter was released in December 1989 according to official records, while the former was released in January 1990 again according to official records. How ironic is that?

Meanwhile, no explanation is given as to why eight chapters were skipped between Ironsword and Fortress of Fear, although Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros, Visions of Power would be released for the NES in March 1992, leaving only chapters four to nine unanswered.

~Ben

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Too bad the Wizards & Warriors NES sequels aren't very good. They were developed by a different development studio, and IronSword was in fact their first game. Only the first and Fortress of Fear were made by Rare.

[Edmond Dantes]

I bet I can tell you what happened in Chapters IV thru IX:

The evil wizard Malkil does... something. Kuros goes to put a stop to it. Repeat a couple more times.

[Kitsune Sniper]

... people actually liked that series? For real?

[Zthun]

... people actually liked that series? For real?

I know. I remember it as terrible.

[SparTonberry]

Too bad the Wizards & Warriors NES sequels aren't very good. They were developed by a different development studio, and IronSword was in fact their first game. Only the first and Fortress of Fear were made by Rare.

If I remember reading right, Fortress of Fear was essentially a license-modified port of an amusement park-themed sidescroller for ZX Spectrum(?, I think. I know it was an early 80s computer game. Maybe C64.) Probably an obscure game.

[bb_hood]

I will agree that Ironsword is not a fantastic game, I had it as a kid and I played it alot. Back then I thought it kinda sucked but I did have fun playing it.
When I was in the 4th grade I let someone borrow my copy of Maniac Mansion and he let me borrow Ironsword. I never got my copy of Maniac Mansion back...

[Satoshi_Matrix]

The only real redeeming quality of the Wizards & Warriors games is the music, done by Rare's legendary composer Dave Wise.

There are some epic remixes around.

[Edmond Dantes]

... people actually liked that series? For real?

It apparently was popular enough to have four games and Kuros appearing as a main character in a cartoon where he teamed up with some other video game characters to fight villains from their games (I don't remember the name of that show... The Power Team or something like that).

[bb_hood]

Ironsword has the bounciest, fluffiest cloud level in any game ever

[Little Miss Gloom]

Ugh.

Haha. These games are terribad. I really enjoy the soundtracks though. Dave Wise is a pretty talented composer, imo.

[Jorpho]

... people actually liked that series? For real?

It had that awesome Worlds of Power novelization!

If I remember reading right, Fortress of Fear was essentially a license-modified port of an amusement park-themed sidescroller for ZX Spectrum(?, I think. I know it was an early 80s computer game. Maybe C64.) Probably an obscure game.

I believe you're thinking of Dragon's Lair: The Legend (GB), which was a port of Roller Coaster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_...8video_game%29

[Metalwario64]

I think the first one is okay. Me and my brother apparently had it when I was a young kid, but I didn't remember it. Last year we got together and played through it for several hours (we got stuck at the underground level. That part had some questionable design, and my brother never got past that part when we were kids).

Overall, I think it was alright. Not great, but pretty decent.

I haven't played much of Iron Sword, so I can't really remark on that, and I was instantly turned off of the third one just by "playing" it for 10 minutes (what the hell are you supposed to do?).

[Little Miss Gloom]

oh god. Yeah, W&W III is by far the worst. I owned it at one point just to say I had all three for the NES. When money was tight and bills had to be paid, that was one game I did not regret saying good bye to.

[Gameguy]

... people actually liked that series? For real?

It's one of the first series of games I've played on the NES. This was before I was familiar with most of the great games on the system, and I still thought these games were terrible. I can't remember if I played the third one(probably did at some point), but the first two were just bad.

[Dire 51]

... people actually liked that series? For real?

Yes. For real. At least the first game in the series, anyway. I didn't mind II & III, but they weren't anywhere near as good as the first.

[davidbrit2]

W&W3 had a lot of cool ideas in it (the guilds were neat), but it was all put together in a way that it's just about impossible to beat it or make any decent progress. It's definitely not a very accessible game.

W&W2 has a moronic password/continue system in that your password encodes the number of lives you have remaining. You don't get a fresh set when you continue your game. Fortunately it's easy to hack the password to get more lives.

The first game is a decent action platformer. There's one part in one of the cave levels that can be pretty confusing to beat, but besides that, no real complaints. And X for the Gameboy compares well with other early platformers on the system.

[bb_hood]

W&W2 has a moronic password/continue system in that your password encodes the number of lives you have remaining. You don't get a fresh set when you continue your game. Fortunately it's easy to hack the password to get more lives.

Yeah the password system in the 2nd game is absolutely horrible. Luckily its a game you can easily beat in one sitting.