Arcade Memories - Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy

What I hope to make a regular feature is the Arcade Memories section.
Every few days I plan to play through an old arcade game, and give some sort of 'mini-review' on the game itself. The plan is to feature games that were more obscure in nature. Not completely 'far out'. No odd Japanese finger poking bum games sadly. Nor any well known games. Such as Street Fighter/Final Fight/Golden Axe, etc.


So to start off with, I present;
'Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy'!

Now, it may sound like some kind of badly conceived porno title (think about it), but it is in actual fact an arcade game from Capcom, released in 1990.

The most memorable part of this game for me would have to be the sound. Why? Because at my local arcade this had the loudest game out of the lot. You could hear the "REEAAHH!! REAH REEEAAAH!!" of the main character over the hoja-billion "ha-do-kens!" that would litter the sound scape of the arcade.
The sound is one of the high-lights for me. It makes the memories of the place more real. It's like smelling a familiar smell. I know when I play this game that behind me is the Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition game, and beside it, the Rainbow hack. To my left is the 4 player Gauntlet which has been sitting there since I can remember. And to my right is Time Killers. It's odd what you can remember just by hearing some familiar sounds.

But the game isn't just all about the sounds.
It's best described as a hack 'n slash platformer. It has Capcom written all over it. Very sharp, detailed pixels that are all bright and colourful.

You play as what appears to be some kind of He-Man ripoff. Or at least Rastan's second cousin once removed. Bah! Let's face it, during this time there were one hundred and one different types of Conan knock-offs in video games. But that's not the point.
So you're wandering along the road, sword in hand, minding your own business when some evil monster dudes want to mess shit up, and have locked up your mean-ass friends in cages. Or something. I'm not quite sure.
But that sounds like a pretty good plot.
Oh, there's also bears.

Yeh, the bad guys have locked your buddies up in cages, and the only way to free them is to use various keys found across the horizontally moving landscape.
It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!
Did I also mention there's something like 40-odd different levels?

One awesome aspect of the game is the fact that upon rescuing a buddy, they will join you in your quest for vengeance! And blood! And revenge! A bloody Revengance some would say!
It's messy.
There are a number of different side-kicks you can happen upon. These include (but are not limited to).
Ninja-guy, Big Caveman Guy, White Wizard Dude, Dark Wizard Dude, Token Hot Girl, and Bomb Peasant with no face. It's true! He has no face that I can see.
Apparently there are some more...like a dinosaur, and a Knight, but I have yet to encounter them.
With this vast array of power (I mean, c'mon - who can withstand a ninja AND a dinosaur!?!) you are virtually unstoppable! If it wasn't for the fact that you had only one life.
Of course, you have a health meter. And as per the norm, this is refilled by various grapes or legs of meat left carelessly lying about. Or in chests.

They are a fan of the treasure chests in this game.
Big chest. Small chest. Chests made out of metal.
Chests made out of wood.
There's a Dr. Seuss story in there somewhere, I know it!

At the end of each series of levels, there's the obligatory boss battle.

Overall, it's a good game. If you have the time. Apparently at the end of the game it gives you a choice to either become good...or evil. With the ending sequence being different depending on the choice you make. Which in those days was some mind blowing stuff! "Whoa!" indeed! However, I am yet to experience this due to the limited time I have.
And dinner was ready.

I give it a hearty 8 out of 10 treasure chests!