 Ssssssssssssssssss N consist- One of the very first titles Rare developed for Nintendo was Wizards and Warriors back in 1987 and they went on to develop a total of 4 titles in the series, 3 for NES and 1 for Game Boy. Starting with Wizards and Warriors, you play as Kyuros GM in a 2D platformer making your way through the forests of Elrond? Huh? And yes, you must get to Castle Iron Spire, defeat the evil Malkil, and of course rescue the Princess. All the typical fantasy-themed stuff is here, like swords, axes, daggers, gemstones, magic spells. I mean, of course it is. It's titled Wizards and Warriors. What, you thought it'd be a baseball game starring Ozzy Smith? Anyway, what sets this one apart are the gigantic level layouts. This is a pure platformer where you jump, jump again, and jump some more. And there's seemingly no end to how huge these levels are. There's even a bit of a twitch element here, because you have to react so quickly to enemies appearing. You can even go inside the trees to find more huge areas with even more enemies, and the enemy variety here is pretty surprising for an early NES game. There's all sorts of stuff you gotta contend with, with a huge variety of patterns you gotta watch out for. What's really surprising about Wizards and Warriors is that it's not that hard. And I do not mean that in a bad way at all. It's actually kind of refreshing to play an older NES game and not have it be balls to the wall difficult like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden. You get a reasonably forgiving health meter, three lives, and unlimited continues. And you're usually able to continue right where you died, so it's pretty nice. Just make sure to press a button within five seconds of the game over screen though. Also making the game a bit easier is the sheer amount of stuff you can collect. All special weapons, items, and magic are locked away in a colored chest. Just find the corresponding colored key to open it. The flying dagger is especially handy because it wipes out everything in its path. The controls are intuitive as well, with the only slightly odd thing being to press select to use magic, but most people would figure that out. The music and sound design are also fantastic, with the first level theme being one of the most recognizable in any game ever. If there's any flaws in this one, is that it's sometimes the levels can feel too huge, and it's tough to get a feel for your surroundings and figure out if you're going the right way, or if you're just going in circles. Also your character's sword attack is a little flimsy, and sometimes you're better off just letting him sit still, so enemies just fly into his sword like a bunch of idiots. But that's fine, Wizards and Warriors is a great time because the execution is so simple, but at the same time there's a lot to do here. In a weird way, this game reminds me if you took the original Legend of Zelda and made it a 2D vertically scrolling platformer instead of a top-down adventure game. It's a similar motif, similar treasure hunting, finding keys and all that, and it's a good time, definitely check this one out. Next came Iron Sword, Wizards and Warriors 2, and yes, this is the one with the infamous cover featuring Fabio looking bored. Right away you can see Rare did a great job making this game look like a true sequel. It maintains the same vibe as the first game you're still exploring, looking for keys, unlocking treasures and all that, but it looks a lot more polished. Okay, technically this was made by a company named Zippo Games, a subsidiary of Rare, but still. And no, you don't actually play as Fabio in this game, although if it helps you to imagine him as the guy in the armor, then knock yourself out. Looks more like Bender to me. Malkil is back and this time he's taken the form of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. I see, I always knew Captain Planet was evil. You go through each world finding golden artifacts to give to the animal king of that level, who then lets you progress to find and unlock a magic spell, which of course coincidentally happens to be the weakness of that level's boss. There's seven total spells you can obtain, everything from turning enemies into coins or food, to putting enemies to sleep, or to propel you to the top of the level which is pretty handy. You can also charge your sword with a certain elemental spell, which you would do in boss fights. So while this game looks and sounds like an upgrade from its predecessor, your attack is so much worse. There's still tons of platforming which feels the same, but the sword attack is worse than ever. Again, you're better off just letting enemies kamikaze into your sword, or just avoiding enemies altogether if you can, but you're gonna take a ton of damage in this one. I personally liked how the first game felt better than this one. I will say it seems like the enemies are a lot faster in this game which can get irritating, and this game can almost feel like a shoot-em-up at times, so that may turn some people away. Another flaw I should mention quickly is that the game lets you stumble into a boss fight before you have the spell you need to beat them, and that might as well be an automatic death, which is pretty stupid. There are a few big upgrades in this game, though. For instance, there are stores where you can buy keys, health replenishments, and even magic spells. You can also gamble to earn more money, but if you don't have any money, the guy throws your ass out of there. There's also a password system, which is convenient, but I should also point out that this game is tougher than the first game. It's still not NES-hard, as they say, but it's a challenge. So yeah, despite how bad your attack is, Iron Sword Wizards & Warriors 2 makes some improvements on the first game. The level design feels less random and more coherent. There's more hidden areas, the pixel art is great, the music is just as good, and the store where you can gamble is a great addition. It's got its flaws, but I'd still recommend this one. Around the same time Iron Sword was released came Wizards & Warriors X, the fortress of fear for Game Boy. Wait, what? What happened to the other 7 chapters? Or is this a Mega Man X kind of a thing? Anyway, unfortunately this game is a straight ahead side-scrolling platformer that doesn't retain the same kind of level design and exploration the NES games have, but that didn't stop the dev team from keeping that same terrible sword attack. There's 5 world tier totaling 18 levels, and there's no continues. Lose all your lives and start from the beginning. I admit I have a big soft spot for the original Game Boy, and I usually enjoy games like this for it, but this one I just can't get into. The attack is so bad, the jumping is slow and wonky while the enemies are nearly twice as fast, and you're expected to make these jumps that go beneath the screen. Come on, really? So yeah, unfortunately this game is a stay away. Finally, we have Wizards & Warriors 3, Kuro's Visions of Power for NES, and this is where the series takes a departure. You start out playing as Kuro's again, only this time you have to build him up from scratch, almost like in a game like Metroid, where you have to level yourself up, build up your strength, and get some armor and some weapons. You do this by exploring all the different areas throughout the game, while picking up items and gaining abilities to unlock new areas in order to progress through the game. In other words, it's open world and non-linear. You go from the town to the underworld to the palace, and you can wander around as freely as you please. And there's even a class system here where you can be a knight, thief, or wizard, with each class having a bronze, silver, and gold statue representing your skill level. Once you obtain a statue, you have to pass a test, usually just a regular side-scrolling level with a boss at the end. You can obtain all three classes and switch between them, which is great. The main story involving Maulkill has you find four secret gems which unlock a passage. To get the gems, take one guess what you have to do. Yep, you got it, rescue more princesses. Wizards and Warriors 3 is majorly ambitious and deserves a lot of credit for trying out so many new ideas, but unfortunately, they're just not executed very well, starting with the art direction here. It's, uh, okay, I'll just say it, it's ugly as hell. The Kuro sprite throughout the game looks terrible in all three iterations, and he walks like an ATST from Star Wars. The backgrounds on the color palette here in general just looks not great. And once again, your regular attack is just awful. The game has you hold down the attack button and then press left and right on the d-pad to actually attack. I mean, that's fine in theory, but it's just so awkward to use. The biggest flaw, however, is that there's no battery save and no password system. I get that passwords probably would have been like 10 miles long in a game like this, but come on, no battery save? So yeah, if you want to play this one, do it with something that can utilize save states. There's all sorts of other problems here too, like the enemy design, where at first you're fighting towns people and dogs, and the patterns are just sloppy and feel like they were slapped together in two seconds. So yeah, Wizards and Warriors 3 is a classic case of a game with some really strong ideas taking elements from Metroid, Zelda 2, and Faxanadu, and adding its own flavor as well. And of course the music is great, as it is throughout the entire series, but the controls, the enemy design, and the visuals here are all poorly done, and of course there's no way to save, which really sucks. Your enjoyment of this one is gonna completely depend on how you feel about those flaws. If you can get used to the controls and if the enemy design doesn't bother you, and those are big ifs, then you'll like this game. I love the idea of an open-world NES adventure game, but there's just too many flaws here to overlook for me. I'd rather stick with the first two Wizards and Warriors games. Anyway, that's all for now. I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.