"1 Skull, and a side of Intestines! PLEASE!"

-Story- [7]
''When the night turns violent and the moon bleeds, gripped by the skeletal fingers of death...6 children born under the Warriors Moon. When these children survive the challenges of adolescence and face one another in battle, only one will rise to to face the lord of Demons in combat...and the lord of Demons will fall by the hand of the WeaponLord.''
The story is pretty much the same as 95% of fighters out there, you're in a tournament trying to be the best and take out the Monger. WL was the first ''WEAPONS ONLY'' 2d fighter.

-Gameplay- [10]
Ever imagine what it would be like holding a 5' Broad Sword and going Weapon-Weapon with your brother who's holding a 170 lbs Warhammer...Play WL and find out. If you're looking for something different than the normal and hunger for a technically-diverse, unique and original fighter, than WL is your calling. WL's play mechanics are deep and a little on the technical/advanced side for its time (and still are to this day). WL adds a few new innovations to the 2D fighter realm, some of which include: The Thrust-Block, which will parry any and all of your opponents attacks leaving them momentarily vulnerable for a few seconds, Guard-Drops to motivate those who like to Turtle, Weapon-Breaks which will shorten the range of your weapon and cause less damage per hit. WL is void of any Super or Desperation attacks (nor does it need either of these). SF2 style 2-in-1's are a common factor in WL, but with moves like Double-Over's & Take-Downs add technique & diversity to the combo system. The balance between characters is ''Flawless''... Not one character is more powerful than the next, everyone is evenly matched. The difficulty is a little high for the beginner and even on the Adventurer setting the AL/CPU will run you into the ground. WL does have a Fatalities, but there not like the ones found in the MK series. In order to do a Fatality in WL you must finish your opponent using a certain special-attack when their health bar is almost depleted.

-Control- [10]
At first the control layout is a tad confusing even to the experienced player. The 6 button set-up is identical to SF2 with light, medium and strong attacks, but that is where the similarities between the two ends. Half of the special-move motions are single button hold-downs (like in Primal Rage) the other half are instant motion moves (like Samurai Shodown). The control is very responsive and after getting accustomed with the play mechanics you'll find doing special-moves and performing 10+ hit combos become almost instinctive, thoughtless-reactions. Playing WL with the 3 button controller will drive you MAD, having to use the start button to switch between BackStrike & ForeSlash attacks will have you slamming your pad into the wall. Seriously, a 6 button control pad is a must.

-Visuals- [8]
The backgrounds are well designed, highly detailed, and nicely animated, yet have a somewhat grainy look to them. Most of the Backgrounds are reminiscent of ancient Egypt with large stone statues in doorways and Rome with the Coliseum/Arena look. With the exception of Divada's warm background scheme 90% of the hues in WL are Cool/Cold (blue, green, violet) schemes which gives WL a Dark Medieval presentation. Also the Genesis version has a blacked-out section (which houses the health bars and timer) at the top of the screen which takes up about 1/8 of the screen, why they did this with the Genesis version and not the SNES version I don't know?. Overall the graphics are good, just not as polished looking when compared to the SNES. After beating the game the title screen sways left-right, almost as if you're hallucinating looking down the road on a 110 degree day in the desert, looks awesome.

-Characters- [7]
The characters are different in personalities and their individual fighting styles are unique, but are too juxtaposed in appearance to one another, there's not enough diversity appearance wise between them. The characters are buff, extremely ripped & defined but like the backgrounds have a grainy look to them. Small little details like the veins on Korr and Bane and being able to cut your opponents hair off enhance WL graphics. The characters animations are par, and pretty much 'Key Frame' only, void of any in-between frames. Strangely enough this does not take away from WL's playability as a certain EG-Magazine criticized it on (and then some).

-Sound/Music- [6]
The music is decent at best and has a Barbarian (somewhat Conan) sounding feel to it. The voice samples are slightly muffled but are completely understandable. The 'Whooowsh' when slashing the air, to the 'Wha-king' & 'Clang' when going Weapon-Weapon, to the 'Througkt' & 'Shlaurk' sound when cutting into flesh sound great and... somewhat painful.

-Verdict- [8]
WL was released at the time when the 32 bit systems were being introduced and 16 bit was pretty much dead (in the eyes of game developers) so it didn't get a wide release or much advertising to promote it. WeaponLord is the best ''cartridge'' fighting on the Genesis (with the best being EC-CD). If you want a Genesis fighter that will take months to master (if not longer) than you'll love WL. Should I buy WL? If you like weapons based 2D fighters or something different... Yes.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/04