The most red-hot, sexy, torso-glistening-with-oil review yet..
“Conan! What is best in life?” the warrior asked. The muscular barbarian sat immobile. Peering from beneath a furrowed brow, he replied, “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. Also, to run and sail through the trees while doing back-flips, throwing shuriken and using ninja magic… wait, what?!”
Demon Sword was released by Taito for the Nintendo NES in 1989. What was the purpose of the confusing Conan misquote above? The game had been previously released in Japan and was known there as ‘The Legend of Acala’. It featured a small Japanese man in a red dress jumping through the trees, throwing shuriken and other ninja-like activities. All in all the exact opposite of what someone who is overly musclebound, and probably struggles to walk down a flight of stairs, could hope to achieve.
I’m guessing whatever marketing folks had been employed for the Western release of the game thought that wouldn’t fly with foreign audiences; after all it was the era of peak body-builder culture in Hollywood, with the sweaty torsos of Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren and Stallone all over the covers of films in video hire stores across the land.
These changes actually prompted a change in the game itself, with the Demon Sword release pruning some cut-scenes and artwork that featured the original protagonist. It’s a shame they didn’t go a step further and actually remodel some of the sprites in the game. But then I suppose having someone with the bulk of the guy on the cover leaping 100ft into the air doing back-flips would have looked weird too. Unless the game was set on the moon or something, which would have at least made it more interesting.
The box art for the Japanese and US/EU releases. Other than the sword, you wouldn't realise that they were for the same game.
Crush your Enemies
In the game you play as the hero Viktar, attempting to save the world from an evil demon. Not alone, the demon has a range of followers who populate the levels, all of whom want to see brave Viktar dead. Here are a selection of them..
Bulging Biceps
The character on the game cover actually looks a fair bit like an actor from one of the Conan films. I can’t remember who and I don’t know the actor; some muscly dude that appears, kills a few people and then gets stabbed by Conan. He was probably a WWF wrestler. (You’re reading this for the quality journalism aren’t you?)
But, in any case he is far from the only actor’s likeness to be used in game releases. 1980's and early 90's game design and marketing in Japan, shielded from any legal actions by a geographical, cultural and language divide, and the fact that no-one gave a fuck, were well known for being ‘inspired’ by the likenesses of Hollywood actors and action film concepts. Here are just a few..
Review - Filbert Wang
Demon Sword has most of the ingredients needed to make a quality platform game: The sprites are well rendered and nicely animated, the graphics colourful, and it moves along at a nice clip. Most importantly for a platform game, it’s responsive with reasonably good hit detection; no falling through solid ground or enemies that strike you with invisible weapons in this game.
So why then does it not quite work? Like a person that has their looks ruined by slightly too small ears and tobacco-stained teeth, the sum of the various parts of the game don’t quite fit together and leave it feeling like a bit of a jumbled mess.
Firstly, some of the levels are way, way too long. A few times I actually wondered if I’d got caught in some sort of loop and needed to find a hidden door or similar to proceed. But no, the stages are just inordinately large. It doesn’t help that the backgrounds are so repetitive; the music (which is just the same few chords, over and over again, and happens to be a horrible earworm) doesn’t help matters and serves to lull you into a comatose state (as a side note I was playing the game on a handheld device in the bath and nearly fell asleep and drowned, which will tell you something.)
Secondly, for much of the time it’s far too easy just to try and avoid enemies and instead go sailing through the air. Stand around in one spot for too long and you’re almost guaranteed to get hit so you’ll generally do this as little as possible while just trying to get a key or power-up before leaping off into the trees once more. The game is also punishingly difficult, with a few strikes from foes (who can hit you just by walking through you) often enough to put you in the dirt.
There are definitely a few neat touches; some of the special items that your character can employ are quite cool and effort has been made to hide a few Easter eggs and secrets in the level for replay value. But, there will be little enough incentive to go back to the game once you have spent time with it, and Demon Sword suffers from being simply ‘OK’ in a very crowded genre.
Some of the cut-scene art looks quite nice and sets the scene well. There are birds flying about in the background and stuff.
The Riddle of Steel
The game is centred around the titular ‘Demon Sword’ of the game title. Far from being as bad-ass as the name might suggest, the game starts with it being a pretty pathetic kind of shiv that means you have to be millimetres away from a foe to strike them. As the levels progress the sword mysteriously grows, so that it becomes slightly more effective. You’ll still keep going back to your supply of shuriken though, simply because your character dies in a few hits, and they allow you to dispatch enemies from a safe distance. Also, the sword looks dumb and more useful for cooking marshmallows or as a hat stand than for use as an actual weapon.
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