Game: "Wizards & Warriors"
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre: Adventure
Published by: Acclaim

Reviewer: -RoG-
Posted: 2/25/2008

Review: Now THIS is a great game. I don't know how many times I played through Wizards & Warriors when I was younger, but rest assured, it was a lot. To many, it's a frustratingly difficult challenge to beat the game, but it's absolutely worth playing through. With fantastic level design, highly entertaining bosses and a variety of useful upgrades along the way, there's no reason to let those difficult areas thwart your progress.

In the game, you are Kuros, a brave knight in the kingdom of Elrond who must save a variety of damsels in distress at the end of each level until you can beat the evil wizard Malkil and rescue the princess. Now while the box art would have you think you are a warrior in a loincloth, nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact is, you're a knight dressed in full armor, but this somehow doesn't effect your mobility in anyway, as you'll quickly discover while you jump from tree to tree effortlessly.

As you make your way through each level, you need to find two primary things: keys and power-up items. Keys will obviously grant you access to more areas and treasure chests which contain those desirable power-ups. But this is where it can get a little tricky. Many people remember the very first level of the game, where you'd go inside those giant hollowed out trees in search of treasures. Problem is, as you make that long climb, you have to fight off killer bees, and even worse, if you made one bad jump, you could easily fall alllllll the way down to the bottom. That's where the game can get frustrating, having to scale your way back up after a nasty fall like that! And hey, even if you do get killed many a time in the game, you've got unlimited continues to work with, so press forth, brave knight!

To aid you with your jumps and battles, some of the power-up items include things such as "Boots of Lava Walk", "Potion of Levitation", "Cloak of Darkness", and "Feather of Feather Fall". Yeah, I always thought that last one could've used a better name, but I guess the writers got a lil' lazy there. Regardless of the naming conventions, these items all help truly make this a "Game of Awesome".

While fighting your way through each level is extremely fun and challenging, the bosses won't let you down. A huge floating demon skull, giant vampire bats, a weird hovering rock face, an evil ghost, a queen spider, and of course Malkil himself. Some bosses are extremely easy and a few are tricky but you'll love fighting each of 'em. A little known fact about the final screen in which you fight Malkil: if you were to zoom out and look at it from afar, you'd realize that it's actually a big smiling skull. You just can't go wrong with that kind of level design.

As if all this isn't enough, the game packs one hell of a good soundtrack. The main theme alone is easily in my top 10 video game songs of all time list. Even if the game isn't your cup o' tea (ie: you're insane), you'll surely finding yourself starting it up here 'n there just to hear that wonderful Wizards & Warriors tune.

On a final note, I must mention that the box for the sequel to this game, "Ironsword", is infamous because it features the unbelievable butter-man himself, Fabio. But don't let Fabio's golden wavy hair dissuade you... Wizards & Warriors is by far the best game in the series.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)