Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance

"At least they included certain magical spells."

Is it just me, or do games with profitable licenses often tank? What am I saying? Who didn't know that? Well, for the record, this game, contrary to popular belief, isn't just called ''Heroes of the lance''. It's called ''AD&D heroes of the lance''. Well, most people probably don't care, as they're blinded by their harsh but justified contempt for this game. It's not QUITE the worst I've ever played, but it
sure is close.

PLOT:6

You're supposed to use eight characters to journey through this dungeon. Pretty poor, but at least it's not the very played-out ''save the girl'' story. Still, they could have done something like showing a powerful wizard handing the mission to you and not just instantly transporting you in the dungeon. It's a simple and forgettable plot, yes, but with everything else fouled-up, that's the way it should be.

GRAPHICS:3

Other reviewers said the graphics were pathetic, but they're
wrong. You only get pathetic if you compare them to the graphics of games on more technologically advanced systems. Compared to fellow NES games, they're only really bad.

Well, the title screens graphics are fine. You can see they did know what they were doing with that screen. It's actually fairly good.

Now the portraits of the characters you are shown when you begin. Who do they think they fooled? Those were obviously scan-ins of images from various AD&D products. The colors are terrible, but they remained solid. so these
graphics are just below average.

And the subscreen graphics aren't bad either. You can clearly see your selections that you choose between in this pause screen.

But we must now turn to the most significant part of the graphics: the dungeon you journey through. Truth be told, the programmers, FCI(who were also responsible for the pathetic ''Hydlide''), Would have been better off scanning in maps from various AD&D products. That's how bad the main graphics are. I mean, when characters appear to not actually
have faces(yes, I'm dead serious), you know something's wrong. Hell, the shapes and colors look like they were formulated minutes prior the game's release! Still, the graphics for other parts of the game elevate the score higher.

SOUND: 1

AGH!! If I have to hear that downright dreadful music again,
I'll puke! Annoying and appalling, the music seems be a kindred spirit with the Smurfs' theme song, with contemptuous chuckling replaced with irritated groans. I'm probably just going on, but I don't care. Oh, yeah, when you kill a bad guy, there's an exploding sound, even though you killed him with either a medieval weapon or magic spell. What the?

GAMEPLAY: 3

Had to give this some points, as you kind of can move around
fairly easily. But the battles are stupid. You and opponent just exchange blows until one you dies. That's really all there is to the gameplay. Well, there is a wide selection of
spells, and I'm glad they didn't just use only the most obvious ones, like in ''Pool of radiance''.

CHALLENGE: 8

Yep, this game is challenging, but for the wrong reasons. Ya
see, you can only go so far before one of these seemingly unbeatable duergar(gray, evil dwarves)battles you. Still, some people on this site claim to have beat them. How do they do it and who cares? After all, wanting to keep playing this cursed(pronounced ''cur-said'')game is just as much of a challenge.

REPLAY: 0

Well, would you watch the Mario movie again? No. I actually amused myself a ROM of this, but I'm still glad I didn't have to play the cart.

OVERALL: 3

Thought It'd be one, didn't you? But as bad as this game is,
its suckiness just doesn't make it the worst ever. Those who
think it is probably never played ''Cheetahmen 2'', ''Conan'', or ''Hydlide''. Still, it's terrible, and I'm glad to know it's the object of ridicule here at GameFAQs.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/01, Updated 09/12/01