Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II

"A fun game."

Ironsword is the sequel to Wizards and Warriors. Unlike the first one however, it is much longer and uses a password system, so you can come back to the area you left off in! The storyline's basic, save the world from the evil wizard and the evil elementals (at least it's not a princess this time). The music's cool and the play/control's pretty good.
Gameplay 10-10. Fight enemies and gather up items to help you along your journey. Then stop off at an occasional inn to heal and get food. Every now and then you'll pick up some ale. Ale restores energy as well. Then you'll find an item which will allow you to defeat the boss of the area, either Windbane, Blightwater, Firesmite or Earthscorch (those are the items, not the bosses). Then...well...you'll fight the boss, and hopefully kill it.
Control 10-10. Jump with A, attack with B. It's all very simple. You can also use magic in this game, but first ya gotta find it. Once you do, you can press Select to access the menu where the spells are. Then you select it with A and use it with A.
Audio 10-10. The music in this game is just great! There's lots of it for many different situations. I love the boss battle theme especially. The SFX are nothing great, but they're definitely better than the ones in the first game.
Story 8-10. Malkil's back, but this time he's gained control of the powers of the elements. Your quest? Stop him, of course. To do this you'll have to fight the wizard's four fiends, and then once you reach the end of the game you fight...the fiends again. So far as I know Malkil doesn't even appear in the game, but the manual says he's behind this, so either they're wrong or Malkil takes four different forms in the last battle. That's not unheard of though, so maybe he does. The last battle is against four elementals that may or may not be Malkil. Oh, and the music's cool too. It's Final Fantasy in an Action'Adventure game. Oh, and in order to defeat Malkil you need to first find the shattered pieces of Ironsword, which are scattered throughout the land of Sindarin. Then, and only then, can you restore peace.
Overall 10-10. Definitely give this one a try. It's better than the first one n the area of storyline, and it's longer. Not only that, if you have to stop for whatever reason you can always come back to the area using a password.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/02, Updated 03/01/03