5/27/2023 0 Comments The magic sword band logoI killed a manticore and got into the castle. The action was quick and responsive, the companion characters were cool and provided variety, and the levels were short enough not to overstay their welcome, with both vicious enemies and platforming hazards to overcome. Somewhere along the line I must have confused the Super Nintendo cart for the CPS-1 version (though I know a gas station near my house had the arcade machine and I played it fairly regularly) because I don’t remember the game looking or sounding this good. The music was better than I remembered, the graphics cleaner, and the control was quick and responsive. I had intended to play just long enough to get a sense for the controls but I found myself unable to stop. The characters are smaller, control better, and can take a lot more damage. Would this be another massive disappointment? Magic Sword is a much better game. I had a copy of Final Fight Double Impact on my Xbox One (Backwards compatibility allows me to emulate an emulation) and with a little trepidation I booted it up. I then decided that I should find out if my memories of Magic Sword were equally warped by the decades between when I last played it and now. The controls are too sluggish and the levels to punishing for me to have any fun or even want to get better. I remembered liking this game when it was new, but in my opinion it has aged into a frustrating unfun mess. I died constantly (with a loading screen between each death) and quickly gave up on playing more. The whole package is kind of boring and very frustrating. It’s clunky to control, the character is too big for the precision of the dodging you’re expected to do, the level layouts are convoluted and weird, the animation is almost non-existent, and the music is bland. 10/10 on the big fishies spitting smaller fishies criterion. This fish spits smaller fish at you, though, so that's pretty good. I have played enough of this stuff recently that I am not looking back at the ‘90s with rose colored glasses and remembering the games as smoother or better-looking than they were. I even enjoyed some of the primitive early Fatal Fury games, which are far from great but are at least interesting. I played through the much-maligned Shock Troopers 2 and I thought it was pretty solid. I had a heckin’ good time with Sengoku, which is kind of clunky to play but is sufficiently weird and zany to entertain, and has some basic beat ‘em up thrills. I loved Blazing Star, which I don’t think I ever played before the Switch. I’ve been having a lot of fun playing Neo Geo stuff on my Switch. While I love new games, I can go back to retro stuff and enjoy that too. I know for many people games that are over 25 years old are almost impossible to go back to, but I’m not that way. I hate Magician Lord! This is what the Magician Lord looks like when he dies. No, it wasn’t that I could save 50% or more on my car insurance, it was that I absolutely hate Magician Lord. I quickly discovered something unexpected. Last night I booted up Magician Lord on my Switch, threw a few virtual quarters into the emulator and got ready for some fun mindless jump and shoot action. But my memory sometimes plays tricks on me. In my memory I liked them both about equally, though I preferred Magic Sword by a small margin. They both feature power-up systems that alter your play-style (Magician Lord features transformations into alternative characters while Magic Sword features companions you can free from behind locked doors.) They both feature interstitial stories between the levels, with the bad guy in Magician Lord taunting you while in Magic Sword your character comments on the level he just finished or gives you a tip or talks about a level to come. They are both medieval fantasy themed action platformers with a character who fired projectiles and a ton of creatively designed enemies who swarmed at you. They are both Japanese games from 1990, one on the Neo Geo the other on Capcom’s CPS-1. Magician Lord and Magic Sword were, for a long time, linked in my mind as similar games I remember liking from my youth.
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