 There's a glaring oddity in the Super Nintendo game catalog that's always kind of mystified me. In the early 90s Capcom evidently went on some kind of sword and sorcery kick because they developed three beat'em up games of that ilk, Magic Sword in 1992, King of Dragons in 1994 and Knights of the Round in 1994. They ported all three to the Super Nintendo and in fact both King of Dragons and Knights of the Round came out within weeks of each other. What the hell is with that? So I wanted to take a look at each of these games to see how they play today. Some may be surprised to know that despite the common and somewhat tired subject matter, each of these three games are still distinct. So what makes these games unique for each other and are they worth playing today? I already did a Knights of the Round standalone review so feel free to check that out if you'd like. First is Magic Sword, the most distinct of the three. The structure here is far more of a traditional arcade style than a beat'em up. There are 51 floors that you have to climb, each floor making for a pretty short level. You fight your way to the top to face the evil Drachmar who controls a crystal called the Black Orb that will of course enable him to do even more evil things like, I don't know, double park in a handicap spot or something? What's interesting here is that you can start the game between levels 1 and 33, so if you want to start out with some amped up difficulty right off the bat, there you go. Anyway, the gameplay here is hack and slash, collect points and power ups and damn, you collect so much shit here I feel like I'm playing the new Super Mario Brothers 2. However, when you collect keys, those allow you to unlock doors that release an ally that fights alongside you. The level is, these are 100% computer controlled, Magic Sword is single player only, so that's kind of a bummer. But you get anyone from fellow warriors, to beasts, to ninjas, to wizards. Each ally you free from a locked door will replace the ally you already have. The longer you stick with the same ally, the more he levels up and the more powerful he gets. They also take damage and can die just like you can. Other features include a kind of Hulk up attack where if you refrain from attacking for a while you save up your strength, or the meter on the bottom there, for a long range attack, and there's a clear all attack that costs you a bar of health. You also upgrade your weapon the further you progress. So yeah, while Magic Sword is nowhere near the quality of the original arcade, it still definitely has a similar feel. Despite the kind of staleness of the whole medieval thing, Magic Sword is still pretty good for what it is. I will say though that this is definitely a case where the original arcade version is way better than the Super Nintendo port. And honestly, the way the gameplay is structured here, I wish we got a Genesis port too. First there's King of Dragons, and right off the bat the gameplay here is just a little different. With most hack and slash games like this you just kind of mindlessly plot along, but here it's essential that you learn the timing of certain enemies, and you learn when to block and when to attack. I like that because it makes you think for once instead of just button mashing. King of Dragons also stands out because there's five distinct characters to choose from, not just three like at Knights of the Round, or the uh, one in Magic Sword. Each of the five characters all have different speeds, sizes, ranges of attack, and they all level up at different rates as well. This gives the game a ton of replay value because you can complete the game in a variety of different ways, and I love that about this game. You can plow through with the big strong dude, but you'll suffer with how slow the guy is. You can fight with the elf and his rapid fire arrows, but his defense sucks. You can pick your spots with the dwarf and his great defense, but his attack range is so short that it can get frustrating sometimes. There's a lot to explore here. King of Dragons is also a multiplayer, whereas Magic Sword isn't, so keep that in mind as well. The more rough in the knot, you're gonna wanna play this game with another person because there's 16 levels total. The game gets pretty dang difficult after a while. One minor touch I really like about King of Dragons are these orbs that you find. You have the ability to bat them ahead of you and then strike them when you find an appropriate time to use them. There's no item menu or select screen or whatever, you just keep it on screen and then hit it when you need to use a clear all attack or whatever it might be. So yeah, King of Dragons, definitely worth checking out. Next we have Knights of the Round, and this one's way more of a traditional beat-em-up. The gameplay here is by far the most simple of the three. The game is structured a little differently than usual, however. You only get two lives, but nine continues. This allows you to be able to switch between the three characters, Arthur, Lancelot, and Percival. Each character has a different range of speed and strength so you can play around to see what you like best and which character fits each part of the game. To be honest though, it's nothing terribly complicated. It is basically a beat-em-up after all. There's a leveling system, to a certain extent, but it's just kind of there. It's more cosmetic more than anything. That's not good or bad, it's just the way it is. Nothing like the way King of Dragons is structured. The biggest strength that Knights of the Round has over the other two games here is that it's easily the best looking. The sprites are all sharp and the backgrounds look great, and you want to keep playing just to see what the next huge boss looks like. The boss sprites are huge and take up this huge chunk of the screen. The game is multiplayer as well, so while this beat-em-up might get dull playing by yourself, it's always a little more fun with a second player. Hey, so there you go, three similarly-themed Super Nintendo games that, when stripped down a little bit, have some unique differences among each other. If you want an old-school arcade-style side-scroller, get Magic Sword. If you want to beat-em-up with a little more substance and a ton of replay value, get King of Dragons. If you want a more classic-styled beat-em-up, get Knights of the Round. If I were to recommend one game of the three, I'd pick King of Dragons. Visually, it's not the greatest, but with the five characters and the tough challenge, you'll get your money's worth. Anyway, thanks for watching and have a great rest of your day.