Dark Legend

"Close....but missing a piece"

-Prologue-
Sometime in the 11th Century. A time when warlords lived as kings... In the Liangshan province, 11 outcasts have gathered around the Forbidden Palace to test their skills. The victor would have ultimate power, as well as wealth beyond belief... DL has your basic fighting story.

-Gameplay-
The game mechanics in DL lets you fight armed or unarmed, and is a cross between Street fighter 2 and Samurai Shodown, with the 6 button control.
DL had some good innovations at the time, the ability to throw-away your own weapon loosing it the remainder of the rounds, multiple projectiles on screen (3 at different strength levels), the feint technique, the weapons gauge at the bottom of the screen when emptied will instantly dizzy. Something unique to DL was the ''Step''. The Step move is a small jump you could perform (multiple times if needed) when on top of a projectile.

-Control-
The control in DL is tight and responsive, considering the framey animation. Special moves are simple rolling and charging motions, performing combos, with little or no effort at all.

-Visuals-
The graphics in DL were pretty impressive. The characters themselves are clean and detailed, with rich color schemes to them. The backgrounds range anywhere from Dull to Excellent, and can be quite espy at times. The fire-effects along with the falling snow on Lin Chong's stage look excellent. Parallax in DL is rare, appearing in 2-3 stages, and not very impressive.

-Characters-
Dark Legends characters are based from Chinese mythology. The individual designs are great. The fighting styles in DL tend to mimic the average 2D fighter, with a couple being unique, Example, Ruan Xiao Wu using unpredictable frogs and crabs, and Gong, who has a four-armed giant, who'll protect him and attack upon command. Technically DL only has 10 characters in design, with the Ruan Xiao brothers ''head swap'' making 3 entities out of 1.

-Music & Sound-
The music in DL is awesome, fast-paced and drifting in styles, differentiating from ancient China to the present.
The voices are great and fit the characters perfectly. Something you'll notice about the voices is they don't sound muffled or static, there clear and understandable.
The sound effects are decent, the ''whoosh'' when slashing the air, and the ''clang'' when blocking a slash, with the kicks sounding like a ''flag'' fluttering in the wind.

-Prologue-
The 2 things that really hurt DL are, the slow movement and what seems like ''Key Framed'' animation. The framey animation will annoy most people, which after a few times of playing DL you'll get accustomed with.
Overall DL is not a bad game, the developers just lost a couple of the pieces while assembling the puzzle.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/12/03, Updated 01/12/03