Magic Sword (Arcade, 1990)

 

The predecessor to some of the great Capcom beat 'em ups like King of Dragons. I played the SNES version of this a while back, but here we've got the superior arcade version courtesy of Capcom Arcade Stadium. It's 50 floors of mayhem as you climb the Tower of Babel with an assortment of allies.

The above shot was the Arcade version's artwork worldwide. Here's the box art for the SNES North American version:

This boxart contains a BIG AMERICAN BEEFY BOI fighting a demon. Considering he's the main character and the only one you directly control, he really got de-emphasized in the arcade artwork in favor of the array of backup characters. Putting the Amazoness up front in the international version was a good choice for drawing in an audience, though.

This game is about as generic as it gets for a fantasy swords-and-sorcery game, right down to the titles. It's a fun romp though, and shorter than I remembered.

We get a sweet intro cutscene with still shots of the BIG AMERICAN BEEFY BOI battling an orc.

"LOOK AT THE VASCULARITY!" said Vince McMahon somewhere in 1990.

The sword reflects the array of helpers...but not the lizardman! Why'd they leave out the lizardman? Also the thief seems to be missing.

As a kid, I liked this game in the arcade because it let you choose your starting floor (up to a point) and I was really into games letting you skip ahead. I wanted to see the last levels of games, thinking that was where all the best stuff was. Was basically a heavy user of warp zones and would take any shortcut I could, so I'm sure I always started this at Floor 33 and plowed through until I died a few times.

In this game I think it's a better idea to start at the beginning, because that way you can get powerups en route to the higher floors (and also actually learn to play)

On the surface, this looks a lot like King of Dragons, but it's got some major differences. One, all of the fighting transpires on a single plane, rather than being able to move up and down like a beat 'em up. Also, instead of choosing one of the characters to play as, you're defaulted to the BIG AMERICAN BEEFY BOI and the others are potential allies/backup you can get by freeing them from jail cells.

The guy I always ran with as a kid was the aptly-named "Big Man", who I think is supposed to be a giant or an ogre. Enemies drop tons of keys, which open these locked cells, so you can constantly be switching up who your ally character is.

OH MY GOD, IT'S A GOLD BEAR! KIDS GET BACK IN THE CAR!

First real boss is this fearsome monstrosity. This game is mostly a button-masher, but it does have some strategy to it: Holding off on slashing for a couple seconds will fill up the magic meter in the lower left, which allows you to hurl fireballs with your next few swings.

Defeating bosses upgrades your sword, which is the main reason I think it's a good idea to start at the beginning.

One of the more memorable things about the gameplay here is that treasure chests spawn out of the ground a LOT, and contain everything from gold (which I think just gives you points) to keys to upgrades. However, they also contain traps a large percentage of the time, which is annoying.

I get the ninja ally, who hurls throwing stars, as I take on...Moai statues?

Between levels, the Hero says various protips and whatnot.

Only 48 floors remaining!

The Amazoness is super hot, and fires arrows across the screen every time you slash. This sort of ranged attack is very useful in a game like this.

Next boss is a dragon that looks freaking amazing for 1990. At this point in time, home consoles weren't punching on this level yet, to say the least.

The knight is probably the rarest ally, and I don't think he can even appear until floor 9. The lizardman is the only one that might be rarer, in my experience.

The knight is worth it because he's super strong offensively and has a ton of HP. I tried to hang onto this guy for a while.

Next boss. I wail on him and move on. This game would be much greater if it had a character select at the outset and you could directly play as one of the ally characters (as well as recruiting the others). It'd make the game at least seem like it had a lot more variety. Would be awesome to play as the knight.

The treasure chest traps are getting really obnoxious now. This one causes a rain of giant rabbit droppings.

It could be the growl of the giant rabbit that emitted those droppings. Be careful!

The lizardman is my next recruit, and I think he might be the actual best of the allies. The knight probably has more HP/defense, but this lizardman fires a Sword Spazer at range that decimates enemies before they even reach you.

Next boss is a green dragon, and man, this sprite is still so impressive.

Undead are notable in this game because black magic spells don't work on them.

"help meeee" say the other allies from their jail cells. No thanks, I've got the LIZARDMAN now.

The levels get deadlier and deadlier, with fire and traps everywhere, as the game goes on.

Next boss is a giant serpent which might be the only one of its kind in the game.

I live only to face a new nightmare: More Moai statues, straight outta Gradius.

The Priest (?) took me a while to find. He's got light magic, which means he CAN hurt undead. Don't think he's got any heals or anything though.

As the Hero gets stronger, so do the allies, and the Sorcerer has some powerful spells now.

The next dragon is an awesome-looking blue one with two heads.

At this point, the sword is powered-up enough that instead of throwing fireballs on a charge, it fires lightning bolts.

Further power-ups give you red lightning, and it looks pretty damn good. You really feel far more powerful towards the end of the game than when you started, considering how short the game really is.

After running in horror from an army of DRAGON BABIES, our heroes reach...

...the final floor, the endgame of this crazy journey.

The final boss is...this guy! He holds the Dark Orb and all the power that goes with it, turning him into a demonic beast.

I stay to the edge of the screen and fire away with the Knight's triple-lance and the Hero's lightning bolts. It's just another fight, and by this point my range attacks are good enough to crush pretty much anything.

At the end is a choice: Claim the Dark Orb (what the bad guy gained his power from) for yourself, resulting in your hero turning into the bad guy.

OR...

...shatter the Dark Orb instead, getting rid of that evil power forever.

That of course gives you the good ending. Kinda weird that there's a choice here at all, considering it accomplishes little besides possibly depriving a few kids in the 90's from seeing a decent ending after dropping a bunch of quarters on it.

Great game, was worth playing again even if this wasn't that different from the SNES version.