Magic Sword

"Smite the evil Drokmar!"

Capcom's famous for its great games. Magic Sword is not as well known as Mega Man or Street Fighter, but it's still a good game worth playing at least once.

STORY: 7/10
You have been asked by your people to go on a quest: You must free them by defeating the evil Drokmar, going up 50 floors to eventually reach (and battle) the villain. Along the way, monsters and booby traps will try to stop you from reaching your goal. Vicious bosses also inhabit the tower, including a chimera, a dragon, and giant twin worms. But you're not alone. If you have keys, you can unlock the jail cells, which hold allies who will give you a treasure for freeing them. If you walk across them, they will follow you and help you kill enemies. Don't want the ally? Just jump over them! Though a story of "find and fight the villain" is common, the addition of allies and being able to choose whomever you want to fight beside you is worthy enough to give a higher score. It's a shame you're limited to only one ally, though...

CONTROLS: 7/10
Nice controls, though when you get hit, you jump up backwards and recoil for a long time. This could cause you to accidentally leap into a pit of fire/lava. When you hit an enemy, they also recoil when hit. Hit detection is very good, though you can't "rapid fire" a foe to death because they will blink after getting hit, which makes them take a little while to kill.

GRAPHICS: 9/10
The colors are nice and bright, and monsters have a lot of detail. Even you and your allies look good! Treasures look good as well. However, some villains are hard to spot because of their small size (scorpions, etc.). Backgrounds have a lot of detail as well. A neat effect is that in one of the stages: the background ripples to indicate intense heat.

SOUND: 6/10
Mostly bangs and booms as your enemies get killed, the odd sound of your sword being swung, and some monsters making roars. When you free an ally, you hear a digitized "thank you". You also make noises: grunts when hit, and a moan when you die. Some of the sounds sound goofy. You can listen to the sounds in the option mode.

MUSIC: 9/10
It gives a nice epic and heroic touch to the game. Much of the music is actually very good. Like the sound effects, you can listen to the music in the options mode.

GAMEPLAY: 7/10
Whenever you defeat a boss, you get a stronger sword as a reward. As I mentioned before, you can also enlist the help of an ally if you free them from their jail cell. As they fight with you, their weapons get even stronger. Here's a bonus: their weapons are PROJECTILES! While you have to get up close to a foe to slash him with your sword, having an ally means you can stay a somewhat safe distance and fire away! The game has its frustrating parts as well: enemies come in such great numbers that it's impossible to avoid many of them. And your upgraded sword has a bad habit of jumping from your hand when you get hit: If you drop it into a fiery pit, you can either go in after it and get hurt some more, or leave it and go through the rest of the stage without it. If you find it necessary to leave your sword, you DO NOT get it back at the end of the stage; you'll have to fight the next boss to get it back. Though it's supposed to add to the challenge, I find the sword-dropping part annoying.

REPLAY: 5/10
You can choose from a few floors to start on, from the very beginning, to about halfway up the tower. You may want to replay the game to see how far you can go until you reach Drokmar (or how far until you get killed). The game is quite difficult, so you may lose all desire to play again either before or after you defeat Drokmar.

OVERALL: 7/10
This game has its good points and bad points, but I was willing to give it a chance...more than once! I've beaten the game as well (not gonna give it away here)! Though it gets very hard and frustrating, you get a good feeling when you finally get to bring Drokmar to his knees!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/04