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Review: Weaponlord [Super Nintendo] |
The title “Weaponlords” implies what it will consist of ; several burly men and women who look like they fit in the world of Conan The Barbarian fighting it out, with, well, weapons obviously. The game already achieves originality due to this, because at the time, there weren’t many weapon based fighters to begin with. So if you dreamt of cleaving people to death, this game would have been the way to go. This game could be found on both the Genesis and Super Nintendo, but I’ll be reviewing the Genesis version in particular since it’s the only one I’ll bother playing.
I wouldn’t call this a bad game, in fact, it’s just fine. All aspects of Weaponlords proved to be well-executed and original, it’s just sad though that it lacks the extra “something” to get the next level. What that something is, I can’t say because I don’t even know, but the aura of mediocrity just seems to float above it. The heart of the game being the battle system, was fairly well executed and well balanced, which came as a surprise to me. First off, the life meters were three short steps. First is a bone decorated meter, once depleted changed into a blood like line, then just a thin red line. After that, you lose the round. So unlike Killer Instinct, the round goes on when part of that meter is lost, but the matches last just as long as any other standard fighter using the 60 seconds time limit. The selection of characters in Weaponlord might be the weakness I couldn’t put my finger on, It’s a small selection, 8 characters in total I believe, though I may be omitting one. They’re all appropriately designed for this fighter and it’s story. With typical barbarian names (the main character is Korr for the love of god), it just seems drab. Each is given appropriate background story and arena, as is the game itself. There’s the basic story mode that covers anything you’d wonder about the setup as to why you’re off to behead people, but it just dragging it’s feet along with this cast, even though they’re not bad or silly looking, it’s just the clich�s are here, the barbarian, the amazon, the beast-man, the she-bitch warrior, the scrawny guy, etc. It’s all there, and it’s actually decently animated, though the colours are entirely under-whelming, sticking to very earthly tones.
The moves list is well-thought out, nothing to over-powering or too fancy, very meat-and-potatoes kind of fighter gameplay, but with an annoying quirk when considering the controls. Some moves require you to hold down the button before you do the motion, and it feels a little awkward, but it’s an almost insignificant complaint considering most of those moves are anti-air, so holding down the button before you do a motion which involves the jump directions prevents you from actually jumping, which is a good thing really. But by far the most annoying is the excruciating slow-down the game sometimes experiences. I’m not sure if it’s due to the emulation, or the game itself, but from my experience, it’s probably the game itself. It occurs whenever a fancy move is executed with lots of animation. To much for the system to handle is my first guess. But I too found something to much to handle, and it’s the fact that you have to fight the roster twice before you can go fight the sub-boss and the main boss. It’s needless repetition, and very tedious. You have the option of arcade mode and versus should you tire of the story mode, and then, that’s it. As okay the game might seem, and it is, there’s just nothing to call you back.
Sweet Jebus, I feel like the life from me has been drained out from playing this game. I feel no enthusiasm speaking of it, maybe the tone of this review is the best description I can give the game. It does it’s job, but in the end fails to deliver any frills or thrills.
Just like this review ;)
