"Baron Baldric is at it again..."

...with somewhat mixed results. This game is about Baron Baldric, an aging wizard who is sent into pretty much every tower in the land to fight off the numerous wizards and demons that lurk inside. With you are many spells and maneuvers to help you on your way.

Gameplay: 8/10
We're off to a good start. The game involves you running around the tower trying to kill every monster. The game provides a map and the number of monsters remaining. One twist though; the monster generator produces monsters UNTIL you destroy it with a bomb placed somewhere in the level. Another catch you say? Yes, you have to eat and drink to avoid death, as you are in your older age. You can collect a variety of spells, each with their different effects. The multitude of monsters is also quite nice, with there being scary monsters, like a skeleton wizard, to the more comic relief monsters, like an evil lemon or a flying milkmaid. The only reason this didn't get a 10 is because it's repetitive. You are sent into the first set of towers, the apprentice towers. Each has their own set of monsters. After that first set, you redo them all, in slightly bigger towers, but with the same monsters. Although there is a lot to do, it just seems somewhat... lacking.

Story: 6/10
"Very generic" is how I would put it. The town is flooded with monsters and they want YOU to investigate the towers to clear them of monsters. That's the story. One of the most cliched stories in our time nowadays.

Controls: 2/10
...What? How can this be? One reason; they don't use the keyboard. There is a control panel on screen that lets you move left, right, up, down, and jump. Even when the monsters are coming straight at you, you have to click: up up left left shoot until they are dead. And most of the time, there are 2-4 monsters in the area, leading to multiple deaths. If you plan on playing this game, be sure to use a controller.

Sound: 10/10
I can't believe how they did this. They pulled off incredible sound quality with meager devices available. The music fits the towers perfectly, the sound effects are somewhat strange, but it makes for a very fulfilling experience!

Difficulty: 6/10
Wow. Be prepared to restart the first level. Over. And over. And over. Until you understand the controls, and what exactly to do. The tutorial screen is very brief and tells you only how to move and how to shoot your spells. The rest is left up to the beginner. After that, the game has a varying curve, and is enjoyable the whole time though.

Overall: 7/10
It was a fun play. It takes quite a while to make it though without dying a multitude of times, but it is quite enjoyable. It has it's flaws, but it turned out pretty well. It was at first an Apogee shareware game, so just trying to find a copy of this game will be even more of an adventure!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/06