Title: Magic Sword
Manufacturer: Capcom
Year: 1990
Platform(s): Coin-Op, can be found for MAME
Description : Two player fun as you wander the land, unlocking additional help from behind doors in the form of the following NPC's: Caveman, Amazon, Priest, Wizard, Thief, Ninja, Lizard-Man. If I've missed one, please let me know. You can also pick up additional armor and swords, but they make very little difference. Which NPC you unlock from behind a door and add to your team is completely up to you. It should be noted that they all have different abilities, and are adept at certain things - and they level up as you do, making their attacks more powerful as they go. For example, the Wizard shoots balls of magic that are fairly powerful, and move very fast, and he shoots pretty frequently. The Priest shoots three decently powerful, homing orbs of energy (and he also has an energy shield that prevents you from harm if you're standing still within it). The Thief lobs powerful grenades, but they don't move fast, nor are they very frequent. He can also find "hidden" treasure.
The story, in a nutshell: the premise of the game is fairly simple. Two warriors set out to defeat Drokkmar, master of the Black Orb, which is found at the top of the Dragon Tower. The rest is just hack-and-slash mayhem.
Interesting game doodads: Magic staves would do damage to all bad guys on screen. Magic orbs would fill your Magic Bar, causing your sword to do a powerful ranged attack. The more keys - which are used to unlock doors, so you can get a companion - you had after defeating the level's boss, the larger the health bonus you'd get at the end of a level.
My Opinion: I got tons and tons of enjoyment out of this game. Unfortunately, it's a quarter eater, in that you've only got one life per credit. That's fine - there's plenty of health along the way. This game is very reminiscent of Knights Of The Round and came out around the same time, but is different in many ways, as well. I've played better side-scrollers, but there are definitely worse. I'd give this one a 7/10.
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