Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II

"The best platform / RPG for the NES"

This review is for Wizards & Warriors 2: Ironsword for the NES. It was the middle child of the W&W NES series, and, as much as I loved the first one, this one is the best one. I didn't really care much for the third installment, which is a shame considering how good this one is the series really fell off after Ironsword. I will be making some comparisons between this and the first game, because for the most part they made some great improvements.

*STORY: 6/10
Well, it's got a better story than W&W. Basically, you killed Malkil the evil wizard in the first game but now he's back and badder than ever! You see, he comes to the land of Sindarain in the form of four elemental beings, which look a lot like pool balls. Air, Water, Fire, and Earth are the four you'll be fighting. One great addition to the stages is that there are two halves of each. You see, you need to find a golden artifact to give to the Animal King of that level in order to progress to the second half. It's here in the second half that the elemental boss resides. Beat these bosses to collect pieces of the shattered Ironsword, the only weapon capable of defeating Malkil once and for all!

*GRAPHICS: 10/10
Honestly, this game has great graphics! Check out the animation of some of the enemies like the 1st level's eagles and you'll see that RARE didn't skimp on anything in this game. The levels are also very well designed and colorful to look at. The ones that jump out to me are the cloud level and the underground jungle-like level with the giant frogs. To up the ante for Kuros himself, now every helmet, shield and weapon you aquire will be shown on your hero! (My personal favorite being the Diamond Sword / Horned Helmet combo). Although, in the beginning stage Kuros starts without a helmet at all but his face looks like he still has some sort of metal mask on. These graphics rule!

*SOUND: 8/10
Okay, let's be honest here. The music is very good. The sound effects are also very good. But they are NO WHERE as good as the amazing music from the first game. But really, what could top that music anyway right? The songs that stick in my mind the most are the awesome opening theme song, the inn / store elevatorish music, and the damned gambling music (more on this below).

*CONTROL: 9/10
Well, it uses the tried and true "Wizards and Warriors floaty jump system-TM" and that's great because he controls almost perfectly. The one beef I do have is that some of the jumps can be ridiculously hard to do, especially in the cloud level there's this one cave where you have to make this crazy hopping jump / slide to the left , all the while avoiding this little demon's bullets. I can do it after a few tries, but it took me forever to do in the beginning when I first started.

*GAMEPLAY: 9/10
Oh! I wanted to give this a 10, I really did! But I can't because I've played the first wizards and warriors and some of the awesome ideas there didn't make it to this installment. For starters, gone are the colored keys / doors / chests that you had to get in order to progress through the game. Also, before you had to collect a certain number of gems in order for the level guardian to let you pass to fight the boss monster. Sadly, these two great ideas aren't in this game.

HOWEVER!

Ironsword does a lot of things exactly right with the ideas that they did include. For example, you now have Money that you can save up and buy equipment at the local stores, much like most RPGs out there. So although gems themselves are still in this game, they act differently because now they just add to the general total of your money along with the standard large and small coins. Also, instead of colored keys you now can get all purpose keys that open any chest for you. Keys can be purchased along with food (to recover your life) at most of the stores you'll find.

And while I'm on the subject of the stores, there's something else they've added to the game that may appeal to you. Now you have the option to play a gambling game called "bones". The concept is very simple- A skull starts to roll at the top of a bone pyramid and will fall into one of four cups. It's your job to pick (beforehand, of course) which cup the skull will land in. If you're right, you win a lot of money! If you're wrong, you're out the 100 coins you need to play bones to begin with. Now, I am lucky with most things in life but I absolutely SUCK at this mini-game. I'd estimate I've won about 10% of the time, which means I lost a ton of money that I could've spent on keys or weapons, etc. You will have better luck than me, because it CAN'T be worse!

Also gone from the first game are Kuros' projectile weapons like daggers and axes. Yep, you'll have to either slash at the enemy with your sword, or (more than likely) you'll have to jump into your foes while facing them with the sword instead. Never fear though, because once you get the elemental spells in the second half of each stage, you can shoot magic beams out of your sword to hurt your enemies, and it's required to kill each elemental boss.

Wait? Did I say magic spells? Yes! This game has items like the first game did too, but now Kuros can also cast magical spells to help him in his quest, providing he has enough magic power to use them, that is. You see, Kuros will find magic "bubbles" while adventuring and touching one will give him a little bit of magic power to cast his spells. Magic can be found in chests or bought at the stores and almost all of the spells are a great help to him. There's even one magic spell that summons a .... demon? nope.... dragon? nope... it's a ... a...
HAPPY FACE! Yes! A happy face, but it kicks much @$$ because it flies around and turns all the enemies into coins for you. What a cool idea for a spell! This is a great way to stock up on keys near a shop, since the enemies always come after you and there's an unlimited supply of foes here, folks.

Yes, that's right. An unlimited supply of all sorts of enemies to batter you to a pulp at every turn. This game is extremely challenging, and to make things worse for Kuros, is that unlike his previous incarnation he now doesn't have unlimited continues anymore! In my opinion, this is much better because that actually made the first game way to easy. To help you out though, now the game features a password that you can accsess at any time in the spell select screen. Now you can actually take a break from the game, whereas the first game you had to do one straight playthrough in order to win.This is a nice and necessary feature because the game is longer than the first game too.

*CHALLENGE: 10/10
I love a good challenge, and this game has exactly the right amount. Not TOO hard, but absolutely not a walk in the park. What a big difference not having projectile weapons for most of the game is, too. It makes it way more challenging in that you have to go up to your foes a lot to lay the smackdown. In the end though, you'll want to keep coming back if you are able to beat it, I do! The end boss fight requires you to fight all four elementals on top of an ice mountain with the assembled Ironsword and it's truly epic!

PROS:
+Excellent graphics and animations!
+A better story than the original.
+Fantastic music, second only to the first game.
+Kuros' gear now shows on him, weapons and helmets look different!
+Lots of different weapons, shields, and helmets now.
+Many hidden rooms to find
+Better level designs than the first Wizards and warriors
+Magic spells are varied, helpful and interesting
+You can buy items and gear at stores now
+Excellent controls, aside from the rare hard jump.
+No more unlimited continues! This is a GOOD thing!

CONS:
-No more color coded keys / doors / chests that personally I liked a lot
-No more level guardian that needs X amount of gems to get past.
-Some of the jumps can be wicked hard to do!

*FINAL SCORE: 9/10

Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors 2 is one of my all-time favorites that is a great challenge, but worth the rewards and awesome to play! Buy it now!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/05