viciouskillersquirrel
Member
Each of us who started gaming on the NES has that one obscure series from our childhoods that we fell in love with from the moment we saw its boxart sitting on a shelf in the gaming section of your local department store. You'd lust after this game for months, longing for the day that you'd get your hot little hands on it.
When that day finally came, be it on your birthday or Christmas, you'd load it up on your game console and play it obsessively - even if it was mediocre or sucked. Somehow though, its world, music, premise and the feelings it evoked would be forever etched into your memory as you wax nostalgic about it to people who don't know what you're talking about.
For me, Wizards and Warriors is that series.
The game I started with was actually the third in the series, but in the spirit of introducing newbies to this world of Arthurian-Tolkienesque fantasy, I'll start from the beginning:
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THE BACKSTORY
-------------------------------
The series, developed by Rare so long ago that they were still called Rare-Coin-It inc., takes place either in England or Middle Earth, depending on which game's backstory you believe. Trust me when I say that storyline is not this series' strong suit.
Still, I'll explain why:
The first game introduces you as Kuros, a member of King Arthur's round table whose name was lost to history because Lancelot gets all the credit. You wield the legendary blade Brightsword because you are apparently the only knight strong enough to do so.
Also introduced in the first game is Malkil - a wizard so powerful and wise, even Merlin calls him "Master". This once good wizard has turned evil and twisted in his old age, threatening the land with his almighty malice and apparent senility. His name would also eventually be lost to history (bloody Lancelot).
The second game, however, has you summoned by elves to the Middle Earth land of Sindarin (WTF? I thought we were in England!). This game is full of Tolkienesque references, which I'll get into later.
The third game and the Gameboy spin-off are segues that don't affect the backstory much at all - the third does, however, hint at a future sequel, which again, I'll get into later.
Mainly, the backstory is about pitting the warrior Kuros against the wizard Malkil.
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WIZARDS AND WARRIORS
-------------------------------
As above, Wizards and Warriors starts you off somewhere in Arthurian England in the kingdom of Elrond. Yes, it's called Elrond. Yes, like the headband-wearing Elf from LotR.
I can only assume, for the sake of consistency, that Wizards and Warriors assumes that the events of LotR and the Arthurian romances took place in the same world, that Middle Earth was in fact Europe and that the land to the west that Elrond led the elves to after the events of LotR went down was somewhere in England.
Apparently, Tolkien's elves lacked ambition and far from crossing the great ocean as they intended to, settled for just crossing the English channel instead. Also, Elrond was an egomaniac who named an entire kingdom after himself.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, here comes the good part: Malkil's nefarious plan!
Malkil, our powerful Alzheimers' patient antagonist, has taken over the kingdom of Elrond with his undead army and kidnapped various maidens of the kingdom - Lucinda, Esmarelda, Galadriel, Grizelda, Penelope and Candida along with the un-named Princess of Elrond. For what purpose he's kidnapped them, the game and manual never actually point out, but we can rest assured that whatever that purpose is, it's really really evil.
The game basically involves you, a one-man hurracane of arse-kicking, storming Elrond castle, rescuing the maidens and defeating Malkil in order to save the princess.
Each level involves you finding various items including keys to open doors, magical items, power ups and treasure chests in order to allow you to collect enough gems to progress in the game. Why do you need gems to progress, you ask? It's because the entrance to the next level is guarded by one of Malkil's henchmen - a red knight who isn't above bribery. You show him the money he's asking for and he lets you pass. Mind you, your gem counter doesn't go down until after you kill the boss - I guess he doesn't like collecting payment out in the open while on duty.
The interesting thing about this game is that even though its main genre is platforming, it turns Nintendo logic on its head - if you jump into an enemy so that your sword touches it first, the enemy gets hurt, not you. This is because of the game's weird combat system, wherein if you held down B, Kuros would stand still and you got to parry, duck and thrust with your sword using the D-pad. If anything touched your sword at all, it would get hurt.
Overall, Wizards and Warriors was a fun (if somewhat easy - owing to unlimited continues) little game. Below is a screenshot of the epic final battle between Kuros and Malkil:
The game ends after that and you rescue the Princess. All is well until...
-------------------------------
IRONSWORD: WIZARDS AND WARRIORS II
-------------------------------
Yes, that's Fabio on the cover. If this isn't the best indication possible of the AWESOME contained in this NES cart, then I don't know what could be. Sadly, you don't walk around looking like a beefier Simon Belmont with long, flowing blonde locks in-game. Instead, you seem to start off the game wearing a chain mail headpiece covering everything but your huge eyes:
This game has you summoned to the land of Sindarin where Malkil, having escaped your clutches at the end of the first game, has taken over the four elemental spirits. He has also destroyed the only weapon capable of harming him directly: the Ironsword, by breaking it up into four pieces.
To top it all off, he's gotten the elemental spirits to guard a piece each in order to minimise the chances that you'll be able to put the sword back together again.
The fact that the land of Sindarin seems to be bereft of elves (they crossed the ocean to found the kingdom of Elrond, you see) lends weight to my theory that Wizards and Warriors was always seen as an epilogue to LotR by the creators... with a bit of Arthurian crossover added to avoid lawsuits.
The Tolkien references don't end there, however. Now that the elves are gone, Sindarin has been taken over by four animal kings - an eagle, a frog, a dragon and a bear. The eagle even flies you up into the clouds (which are bouncy, by the way) Gandalf-style so that you can battle the Wind Elemental. They play much the same gatekeeper role as the corrupt Red Knight did in the first game, only they demand specific golden objects from each level rather than gems.
Anyway, this game is much, much harder than the first one, especially towards the end. It also has much more variety in its levels than the first and fantastic music. In addition to the cloud level I mentioned, you also get to swim (in full armour, mind you) in a zombie-infested underground cavern, explore a rainforest, go down a volcano hole, explore some mines and climb an ice-capped volcano.
This game has a neat easter egg wherein if you walk into an Inn (where you shop for recovery items, upgraded weapons and spells) without any money, the innkeeper will grab you by the scruff of the neck and throw you out.
Upgrading weapons and armour change your appearance. A diamond sword, for example, is large and looks more like a lance. A horned helmet gives you horns. You can even swap your sword for an axe and get yourself a crusader shield.
The final level is where you face off against Malkil and actually physically kill him on the top of Icefire Mountain. The ending is epic and lame at the same time, since his head literally explodes and it's over all too quickly.
Overall, I'd say that this game is the pinnacle of the series. It got just about everything right in terms of atmosphere, difficulty and variety in combat.
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WIZARDS AND WARRIORS III - KUROS: VISIONS OF POWER
-------------------------------
Malkil is back, bitches!!!
If you leave the game on the opening screen for a while, Wizards and Warriors III treats you to an epic cutscene explaining the story so far.
It starts off with Kuros raising his sword in the air, triumphant on the peak of Icefire mountain, having just slain Malkil. Thing is though, his soul actually survived and refused to go to its final destination!
You see Malkil, now a disembodied head, rise from the grave and spit some green stuff at Kuros. Surprised, he drops his sword and his helmet and is knocked out cold. Some text explains that when he comes to, he has no sword, no armour, no magic and no memory of who he is or what the hell he is doing sleeping naked on a mountaintop.
He wanders the forests of Europe/Middle Earth, looking for some sign of civilisation. At one point, he gets jumped by a troll/goblin thing, but he kung-fus its arse and takes its sword. Yes, even when he has amnesia, Kuros is just that badass.
Meanwhile, Malkil's spirit floated over to the kingdom of Piedup. This city - where the castle and houses are perched on stilts on top of one another (the game's manual explains that this was an early experiment in space saving) is ruled by good King James. Malkil spits on him too and takes over the throne.
Apparently, Piedup is small, but sits on top of some very valuable diamond mines which attracted a lot of riff raff some years ago. These days, it's a wretched hive of scum and villainy that's just perfect for a malevolent spirit wanting to make a new start in the world.
After a few years of randomly wandering and probably doing some small-time mercenary-ing, Kuros eventually hears the name Malkil and it stirs a deeply-repressed memory. He decides to go to Piedup, hand out a long-overdue smackdown and get his revenge.
Visions of Power is vastly different to the Castlevania-meets-Mario style that dominated the first two games and is closer to a Metroidvania than anything else. While the level design isn't nearly as tight, the interconnected map and backtracking features are very much present.
Piedup is split into three distinct section - the city, the castle and the underworld (monster-infested diamond mines), each with their own monsters, shops and culture. Below is a shot of the underworld.
This game also features multiple costumes - Kuros can change between being a Knight, a Thief and a Wizard, according to what the situation calls for. Within each class, there are three sub-classes - which allow for different kinds of exploration and combat.
Each class is welcome in a different part of Piedup, thieves in the city, knights in the castle and wizards in the underworld. If you show up as the wrong class, monsters will attack you, shopkeepers will refuse to serve you and life will generally be tough. If you're smart about your costume changes though, fewer than twenty enemies will attack you throughout the whole game. Mind you, even if you're a welcome class you can still attack an enemy if you like - this will make every enemy on the screen gang up on you.
This is the game where, as a thief, you finally get to see Kuros' face. Far from being the blonde Fabio/Simon Belmont lookalike we were expecting from the first game, Kuros has black hair and sports a beard and moustache. Well, OK, maybe back in his glory days he used to shave and die his hair, but he certainly lets it all hang out now.
You get these costumes by joining the local guilds. There are three levels of membership for each guild and joining up involves first retrieving a statue belonging to that guild and beating an obstacle course. Trust me, it's a lot of grief to go through for a new set of duds. The powers you gain are:
Knight 0: Short sword (this is how you start the game)
Knight 1: Long sword (a Freudian sword more powerful than the original)
Knight 2: Boomerang Axe (this one is seriously cool)
Knight 3: Shooting sword (an even more Freudian sword that spits out stuff from the tip)
Thief 1: Knife
Thief 2: Crow bar (lets you open windows)
Thief 3: Skeleton Key (it's a huge key that lets you open any door or window in the game)
Wizard 1: Fireball (useful)
Wizard 2: Forcefield (totally useless except for one part of the game)
Wizard 3: Levitation (I can fly!)
Each class also has a different emphasis when it comes to movement. Knights are all-rounders, thieves are fast long-jumpers and wizards are slow high-jumpers.
Why doesn't Kuros just go directly to the throne room to kick some undead senile wizard arse? Apparently, with the high-rise stilt houses, diamond money and monster-infested caverns, standard architectural principles were never adhered to and the only entrance to the throne room is via a secret entrance somewhere in the underworld. Your way is also blocked by all manner of obstacles and at one point you need to promise to marry three different princesses so that they'll each give you the magical gems you'll need to open the final door.
Anyway, once you make it up there using all your new powers, there's the epic final battle where Malkil (still disguised as the King) flys around throwing tiddly winks at you. If you manage to kill him, he collapses into a pulsating blue thing. When you touch it
This means that the Wizards and Warriors either has the lamest series ending in the history of video games or the most awesome. Unfortunately, Rare never touched the property again, so we're unlikely to ever see the conclusion to the story.
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WIZARDS AND WARRIORS X: FORTRESS OF FEAR
-------------------------------
This is the one Wizards and Warriors game that I never got to play. I don't know much about it, other than the fact that it doesn't seem to be part of the main series' continuity. I have a feeling that it's set between the first and second games.
EDIT: It seems I was wrong. It's definitely set after Ironsword, but its relation to Visions of Power is unclear. It's a side story, I guess.
-------------------------------
KUROS' OTHER APPEARANCES
-------------------------------
Kuros has also made cameos in TV commercials, the TV show Captain N: The Game Master and had a starring role in Captain N lesser ripoff Power Team. He also starred in a novelisation of his games back in the early nineties, part of the Worlds of Power series.
-------------------------------
THE FUTURE
-------------------------------
As previously mentioned, this seems to be a property that is not only dead, but long buried. Because of licensing issues, the games aren't even likely to see a VC release. It's just too bad.
When that day finally came, be it on your birthday or Christmas, you'd load it up on your game console and play it obsessively - even if it was mediocre or sucked. Somehow though, its world, music, premise and the feelings it evoked would be forever etched into your memory as you wax nostalgic about it to people who don't know what you're talking about.
For me, Wizards and Warriors is that series.
The game I started with was actually the third in the series, but in the spirit of introducing newbies to this world of Arthurian-Tolkienesque fantasy, I'll start from the beginning:
-------------------------------
THE BACKSTORY
-------------------------------
The series, developed by Rare so long ago that they were still called Rare-Coin-It inc., takes place either in England or Middle Earth, depending on which game's backstory you believe. Trust me when I say that storyline is not this series' strong suit.
Still, I'll explain why:
The first game introduces you as Kuros, a member of King Arthur's round table whose name was lost to history because Lancelot gets all the credit. You wield the legendary blade Brightsword because you are apparently the only knight strong enough to do so.
Also introduced in the first game is Malkil - a wizard so powerful and wise, even Merlin calls him "Master". This once good wizard has turned evil and twisted in his old age, threatening the land with his almighty malice and apparent senility. His name would also eventually be lost to history (bloody Lancelot).
The second game, however, has you summoned by elves to the Middle Earth land of Sindarin (WTF? I thought we were in England!). This game is full of Tolkienesque references, which I'll get into later.
The third game and the Gameboy spin-off are segues that don't affect the backstory much at all - the third does, however, hint at a future sequel, which again, I'll get into later.
Mainly, the backstory is about pitting the warrior Kuros against the wizard Malkil.
-------------------------------
WIZARDS AND WARRIORS
-------------------------------
As above, Wizards and Warriors starts you off somewhere in Arthurian England in the kingdom of Elrond. Yes, it's called Elrond. Yes, like the headband-wearing Elf from LotR.
I can only assume, for the sake of consistency, that Wizards and Warriors assumes that the events of LotR and the Arthurian romances took place in the same world, that Middle Earth was in fact Europe and that the land to the west that Elrond led the elves to after the events of LotR went down was somewhere in England.
Apparently, Tolkien's elves lacked ambition and far from crossing the great ocean as they intended to, settled for just crossing the English channel instead. Also, Elrond was an egomaniac who named an entire kingdom after himself.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, here comes the good part: Malkil's nefarious plan!
Malkil, our powerful Alzheimers' patient antagonist, has taken over the kingdom of Elrond with his undead army and kidnapped various maidens of the kingdom - Lucinda, Esmarelda, Galadriel, Grizelda, Penelope and Candida along with the un-named Princess of Elrond. For what purpose he's kidnapped them, the game and manual never actually point out, but we can rest assured that whatever that purpose is, it's really really evil.
The game basically involves you, a one-man hurracane of arse-kicking, storming Elrond castle, rescuing the maidens and defeating Malkil in order to save the princess.
Each level involves you finding various items including keys to open doors, magical items, power ups and treasure chests in order to allow you to collect enough gems to progress in the game. Why do you need gems to progress, you ask? It's because the entrance to the next level is guarded by one of Malkil's henchmen - a red knight who isn't above bribery. You show him the money he's asking for and he lets you pass. Mind you, your gem counter doesn't go down until after you kill the boss - I guess he doesn't like collecting payment out in the open while on duty.
The interesting thing about this game is that even though its main genre is platforming, it turns Nintendo logic on its head - if you jump into an enemy so that your sword touches it first, the enemy gets hurt, not you. This is because of the game's weird combat system, wherein if you held down B, Kuros would stand still and you got to parry, duck and thrust with your sword using the D-pad. If anything touched your sword at all, it would get hurt.
Overall, Wizards and Warriors was a fun (if somewhat easy - owing to unlimited continues) little game. Below is a screenshot of the epic final battle between Kuros and Malkil:
The game ends after that and you rescue the Princess. All is well until...
-------------------------------
IRONSWORD: WIZARDS AND WARRIORS II
-------------------------------
Yes, that's Fabio on the cover. If this isn't the best indication possible of the AWESOME contained in this NES cart, then I don't know what could be. Sadly, you don't walk around looking like a beefier Simon Belmont with long, flowing blonde locks in-game. Instead, you seem to start off the game wearing a chain mail headpiece covering everything but your huge eyes:
This game has you summoned to the land of Sindarin where Malkil, having escaped your clutches at the end of the first game, has taken over the four elemental spirits. He has also destroyed the only weapon capable of harming him directly: the Ironsword, by breaking it up into four pieces.
To top it all off, he's gotten the elemental spirits to guard a piece each in order to minimise the chances that you'll be able to put the sword back together again.
The fact that the land of Sindarin seems to be bereft of elves (they crossed the ocean to found the kingdom of Elrond, you see) lends weight to my theory that Wizards and Warriors was always seen as an epilogue to LotR by the creators... with a bit of Arthurian crossover added to avoid lawsuits.
The Tolkien references don't end there, however. Now that the elves are gone, Sindarin has been taken over by four animal kings - an eagle, a frog, a dragon and a bear. The eagle even flies you up into the clouds (which are bouncy, by the way) Gandalf-style so that you can battle the Wind Elemental. They play much the same gatekeeper role as the corrupt Red Knight did in the first game, only they demand specific golden objects from each level rather than gems.
Anyway, this game is much, much harder than the first one, especially towards the end. It also has much more variety in its levels than the first and fantastic music. In addition to the cloud level I mentioned, you also get to swim (in full armour, mind you) in a zombie-infested underground cavern, explore a rainforest, go down a volcano hole, explore some mines and climb an ice-capped volcano.
This game has a neat easter egg wherein if you walk into an Inn (where you shop for recovery items, upgraded weapons and spells) without any money, the innkeeper will grab you by the scruff of the neck and throw you out.
Upgrading weapons and armour change your appearance. A diamond sword, for example, is large and looks more like a lance. A horned helmet gives you horns. You can even swap your sword for an axe and get yourself a crusader shield.
The final level is where you face off against Malkil and actually physically kill him on the top of Icefire Mountain. The ending is epic and lame at the same time, since his head literally explodes and it's over all too quickly.
Overall, I'd say that this game is the pinnacle of the series. It got just about everything right in terms of atmosphere, difficulty and variety in combat.
-------------------------------
WIZARDS AND WARRIORS III - KUROS: VISIONS OF POWER
-------------------------------
Malkil is back, bitches!!!
If you leave the game on the opening screen for a while, Wizards and Warriors III treats you to an epic cutscene explaining the story so far.
It starts off with Kuros raising his sword in the air, triumphant on the peak of Icefire mountain, having just slain Malkil. Thing is though, his soul actually survived and refused to go to its final destination!
You see Malkil, now a disembodied head, rise from the grave and spit some green stuff at Kuros. Surprised, he drops his sword and his helmet and is knocked out cold. Some text explains that when he comes to, he has no sword, no armour, no magic and no memory of who he is or what the hell he is doing sleeping naked on a mountaintop.
He wanders the forests of Europe/Middle Earth, looking for some sign of civilisation. At one point, he gets jumped by a troll/goblin thing, but he kung-fus its arse and takes its sword. Yes, even when he has amnesia, Kuros is just that badass.
Meanwhile, Malkil's spirit floated over to the kingdom of Piedup. This city - where the castle and houses are perched on stilts on top of one another (the game's manual explains that this was an early experiment in space saving) is ruled by good King James. Malkil spits on him too and takes over the throne.
Apparently, Piedup is small, but sits on top of some very valuable diamond mines which attracted a lot of riff raff some years ago. These days, it's a wretched hive of scum and villainy that's just perfect for a malevolent spirit wanting to make a new start in the world.
After a few years of randomly wandering and probably doing some small-time mercenary-ing, Kuros eventually hears the name Malkil and it stirs a deeply-repressed memory. He decides to go to Piedup, hand out a long-overdue smackdown and get his revenge.
Visions of Power is vastly different to the Castlevania-meets-Mario style that dominated the first two games and is closer to a Metroidvania than anything else. While the level design isn't nearly as tight, the interconnected map and backtracking features are very much present.
Piedup is split into three distinct section - the city, the castle and the underworld (monster-infested diamond mines), each with their own monsters, shops and culture. Below is a shot of the underworld.
This game also features multiple costumes - Kuros can change between being a Knight, a Thief and a Wizard, according to what the situation calls for. Within each class, there are three sub-classes - which allow for different kinds of exploration and combat.
Each class is welcome in a different part of Piedup, thieves in the city, knights in the castle and wizards in the underworld. If you show up as the wrong class, monsters will attack you, shopkeepers will refuse to serve you and life will generally be tough. If you're smart about your costume changes though, fewer than twenty enemies will attack you throughout the whole game. Mind you, even if you're a welcome class you can still attack an enemy if you like - this will make every enemy on the screen gang up on you.
This is the game where, as a thief, you finally get to see Kuros' face. Far from being the blonde Fabio/Simon Belmont lookalike we were expecting from the first game, Kuros has black hair and sports a beard and moustache. Well, OK, maybe back in his glory days he used to shave and die his hair, but he certainly lets it all hang out now.
You get these costumes by joining the local guilds. There are three levels of membership for each guild and joining up involves first retrieving a statue belonging to that guild and beating an obstacle course. Trust me, it's a lot of grief to go through for a new set of duds. The powers you gain are:
Knight 0: Short sword (this is how you start the game)
Knight 1: Long sword (a Freudian sword more powerful than the original)
Knight 2: Boomerang Axe (this one is seriously cool)
Knight 3: Shooting sword (an even more Freudian sword that spits out stuff from the tip)
Thief 1: Knife
Thief 2: Crow bar (lets you open windows)
Thief 3: Skeleton Key (it's a huge key that lets you open any door or window in the game)
Wizard 1: Fireball (useful)
Wizard 2: Forcefield (totally useless except for one part of the game)
Wizard 3: Levitation (I can fly!)
Each class also has a different emphasis when it comes to movement. Knights are all-rounders, thieves are fast long-jumpers and wizards are slow high-jumpers.
Why doesn't Kuros just go directly to the throne room to kick some undead senile wizard arse? Apparently, with the high-rise stilt houses, diamond money and monster-infested caverns, standard architectural principles were never adhered to and the only entrance to the throne room is via a secret entrance somewhere in the underworld. Your way is also blocked by all manner of obstacles and at one point you need to promise to marry three different princesses so that they'll each give you the magical gems you'll need to open the final door.
Anyway, once you make it up there using all your new powers, there's the epic final battle where Malkil (still disguised as the King) flys around throwing tiddly winks at you. If you manage to kill him, he collapses into a pulsating blue thing. When you touch it
it turns out to be a FREAKING TIME WARP THAT SUCKS KUROS INTO THE FUTURE. The epilogue says farewell to Kuros and implies that the battle will continue for all of time.
This means that the Wizards and Warriors either has the lamest series ending in the history of video games or the most awesome. Unfortunately, Rare never touched the property again, so we're unlikely to ever see the conclusion to the story.
-------------------------------
WIZARDS AND WARRIORS X: FORTRESS OF FEAR
-------------------------------
This is the one Wizards and Warriors game that I never got to play. I don't know much about it, other than the fact that it doesn't seem to be part of the main series' continuity. I have a feeling that it's set between the first and second games.
EDIT: It seems I was wrong. It's definitely set after Ironsword, but its relation to Visions of Power is unclear. It's a side story, I guess.
The Instruction Manual said:
-------------------------------
KUROS' OTHER APPEARANCES
-------------------------------
Kuros has also made cameos in TV commercials, the TV show Captain N: The Game Master and had a starring role in Captain N lesser ripoff Power Team. He also starred in a novelisation of his games back in the early nineties, part of the Worlds of Power series.
-------------------------------
THE FUTURE
-------------------------------
As previously mentioned, this seems to be a property that is not only dead, but long buried. Because of licensing issues, the games aren't even likely to see a VC release. It's just too bad.
Second game was best IMO.
