 It doesn't get much more 90s than a title like Excalibur 2097, and the cover doesn't lend any insight at all as to what this game is. It could be a shoot-em-up, the sort suggests maybe a fighting game, the city suggests a final fight style beat-em-up, or maybe a shadow run type game, or maybe this is some kind of futuristic sports game, I don't know. It turns out it's a story driven action platformer, a little bit in the same vein as something like Phantom 2040, with lots of cutscenes interspersed throughout the game. The company's title for this game is Sword Maniac, which is a way better title, and a much better cover too. I'll talk about the story first, because I'm guessing the developers were counting on it to make an otherwise average and generic looking game stand out a little bit. But the story here is the same ol' post-apocalyptic stuff that's been done to death. Governments have collapsed, money is worthless, organized crime has risen to seize power, your character named Slash? Yeah right, I wish, that'd be freaking great. Anyway, Slash wields a powerful sword called the X-Caliber, that all the evil mob guys want because it can rip through steel like rancid butter? Ah yes, I can smell it now, thanks for the lurid visual game. The evil mob that runs the city is run by Raptor, who is evidently 300 feet tall, and he's made a deal with these mutant monster things to help him run the city. It's worth mentioning that the Japanese version of the story is completely different, where the Slash character is imprisoned for murder and hired by the government on a mission to take out the mob, not unlike the movie Escape from New York. There's six stages total for all this to play out in, and there's a little cut scene before and after each boss fight. Everything certainly looks good, and I commend this game for having a distinct visual style to it. But the dialogue here is all just 80s action movie one-liners, there's nothing of real substance here. As for the gameplay itself, there's your typical action platforming that's done well enough, but it's nothing worth writing home about. It's all very linear, with lots of button mashing and dodging, but to the game's credit, it at least gives you a variety of buttons to mash, with a few different sword attacks to choose from, and a block button that comes in handy, especially in this annoying part with the motorcycles. What stands out here are the boss fights. When you reach the end of a level, the game shifts to a one-on-one fighting mode, just you versus a powerful enemy, and you can also bring in a second player and fight them one-on-one as well, in a separate game mode. This is fine, but it would work a lot better if the controls changed to fit this mode. Instead, it's the same hack and slash button mashing where you just spam your attack, take some damage, block when you can, and hope you have more life than he does by the end of the fight. Now, I hear people have some trouble with the first boss in the game. Game grumps, but I'm honestly not sure why. You just spam the boss with your strongest attack over and over, and he keels over in no time. X-Caliber 2097 does come across as kind of generic, but I don't want to be too hard on it. It does have some little things going for it, like the design of the slash character gives off kind of a Highlander vibe. Maybe it's the rolled-up coat sleeves. Also, the effect of effortlessly slicing something in half is pretty cool. I mean, you certainly get the impression they put a lot of effort into the visuals of this game, and like I said, the cutscenes are all well done, and the sound design isn't too shabby either. But yeah, the gameplay is just too ordinary to get anything more than a tepid recommendation for X-Caliber 2097. If you're looking for a cheap, under-the-radar platformer, then you're better off going for something like Block or Phantom 2040. X-Caliber 2097 gets past its generic title and generic cover by looking real nice, but the gameplay in blah story put it right back into the mediocre category. It's not a bad game at all, but there's better out there, and it's not worth going way out of your way to play.