NES Abridged - Sword Master Review (1992)
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- Опубликовано: 15 ноя 2024
- An abridged review of Sword Master for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
NES Abridged is a series of short form retro game reviews focusing on the NES library.
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/ quwebs
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#nes #retrogaming #swordmaster
This game is great. A few years ago I had to search the bowels of the internet to remember what this was because I don't have it anymore and forgot what it's called. I never found out how to use the different spells with the mage. That's cool. Also, I still remember the end boss (which you didn't show here) with its haunting music track. It was a captivating experience overall. I have to add it has a great sountrack as well.
Yeah, sometimes I don't show the final boss to entice folks to go and play it for themselves, but I did show the Fire Mage briefly! 😈
This game is beautiful to look at.
I agree!
I was wondering what the catch was as you were showing all the cool stuff at the beginning of the review. I'd still like to try this one out sometime! Thanks for putting this on my radar!
It's a pretty neat game, I think you'll like it... er... wait this might be another Toad scenario where you have a character in a platforming game that struggles with jumping... 😊
I always get this game and “Castle of Dragon” mixed up. This game is much better but they look very similar.
100% agree!
The parallax scrolling in this game is really cool
Agreed!
I played this game once as a kid and it stuck with me forever. I couldn't remember the name but remembered the graphics and gameplay, it wasn't until a few years ago that a friend helped me identify it in the NES librar and got to play it again.. Solid game IMO, lots of atmosphere for a NES game.
Sword Master is one of those games you just have to play to understand. I agree totally about the immersion factor. Thanks for checking out my thoughts!
A great review for an intriguing game! I don't remember hearing much about this back in the day.
So if Athena developed Sword Master, maybe there should have been a game company named Sword Master to develop the game Athena
😆
Fun review! I remember trying this game out as a kid and getting just destroyed by that skeleton at the beginning hahaha
That skeleton rocked my socks off my first time playing too 😆
Must have kid Icarus painting?0
Seems this was a spiritual successor to "Castle of Dragon"? I probably would have loved this game as a kid. It's got those visuals I craved.
I'm going to look into Castle of Dragon! Thanks for bringing it to my attention Maverynthia!
It's unfortunate it so expensive now. I'd love to play it. Oh well.
@@quwebs Good luck :3
I remember playing this back in the day and not being able to get over the platforming - it's good to know it wasn't just me being a kid and the platforming really does suck.
I don't know if I would have had the patience when I was a kid either, the platforming was pretty grueling in a few sections.
The platforming isn't great but it at least seems doable with enough diligence, the upside is it's not Kid Kool or an Action 52 game, hehe. Great video, by the way.
Thanks Alan! The battles were intriguing enough for me to persist through the bad platforming sections, they were on to something with that. I would have loved it if it was just all one on one fights!
fist time viewer and a new sub to you for only 1 reason:
i love this game so much, it is a long story on how many bad reviews it got but we rented it and played it and loved it and kept renting again and again, and i need to say it is an amazing game with an amazing intro, great music, great artstyle and it has hints about certain lore that kinda feels like DARK SOULS in places if u ever read the manual about a certain knight that became evil like the astora knight in dark souls.
i was bugging many a nes youtbers about it but to no avail and now someone i never knew reviewed it, really a well hidden classic game that is worth it and easily in my top 30 nes games of all time.
I appreciate that, thanks! Hopefully you'll enjoy some of my other videos! Sword Master is pretty cool and unique. I'd play it again for sure!
Wholesome
@@ElimGarakSpoonHead oh my gosh I love your username!
Now that I've seen it, I wish ANY of the old video stores that used to exist where I live would have had a copy to rent, I honestly never knew it existed. Even if the platforming might be frustrating, I think I would have soldiered on just for the visual feel of it. It's grim but not like Castlevania grim, maybe even that aspect is also kind of "Dark Soulsy."
Looks like something that would pop out in Nintendo Online NES pack on the Switch.
Nice review quwebs! I do find it humorous that in a game called SWORDMASTER, you're most powerful when CASTING SPELLS lol, GG, game designers.
Thank you! I hadn't thought about that but you're right 😆
Wow, I haven't thought about Sword Master in a long time. I remember hearing about this game back in the day but it was one of those late era NES titles that was overshadowed by the SNES. I rented it once but I didn't actually sit down to beat the game until years later on emulation. Its been years since I've played SM but I do recall the controls being very clunky and wishing it was as smooth and responsive as Zelda II. But I do remember the epic boss fights and the ability to turn into a mage to cast spells adds a lot of depth to the gameplay. If it had better controls it could have been a true classic but still a solid game in my opinion.
The controls, especially the jumping, took a while to get accustomed to. I would happily pick up and play Sword Master again though; it's pretty unique!
Didnt realize this review would end by teaching me the facts of life :P
Hopefully those facts of life also include giving Swordmaster a shot! 😊
@@quwebs That seemed to be the most important lesson to take away from all this :D
This looks like Kick Master. This plays like Kick Master. Any relation?
That's what I thought at first, but they had completely different development teams! Sword Master was by Athena and Kick Master was KID!
If you walk off the edge of a platform, you can do a pseudo 'double jump' by pressing A. Kind of a weird mechanic
Interesting! I never knew that!
Nice hidden gem this time, I'd never even heard of this game before. Is it just me, or does a lot of it's visuals remind one of Faxanadu?
It does have a bit of that Faxanadu dark gritty look to it!
I love manuals too myself. Ive got the map and item foldouts for dragon warrior (quest) IV framed on my wall.
This games sidescrolling sections reminded me of an actiony version of Magician, shitty platforming and all
Hey that's really cool! I love hearing about other folks who were so inspired by manuals that they hang them up as art!
This is one of those I've only heard the name of and seen a few screenshots. I feel like there were a lot of these ambitious sorta platformer sorta RPG kind of games later in the NES' life, I suppose this blended genre would be the precursor to modern Metroidvania titles.
Also, I feel ya on manuals, but I do appreciate that some modern games will have a section on their in-game menu that will have lore and gameplay tips and sometimes even extra art, kind of putting the manual in the game, if that makes sense
Hopefully one day you'll get a chance to give Sword Master a try for yourself - it's pretty cool!
@@quwebs Secretly hoping it shows up on Switch Online. I mean, if they put Eliminator Boat Duel on there, I don't think anything is off limits xD
@@HybridAngelZero Eliminator Boat Duel was fine. Basically Need for Speed Most Wanted but with boats :D
@@cheaddos I was more referring to the level of obscurity, at least to me. I'd never even heard of the game until it showed up on NSO xD
looks fun. graphics are impressive.
Sword Master is a good looking game for sure!
Platforming in the NES era was often hugely unbalanced. Your character can take several hits, but fall down a pit and it's immediate death.
The jumping was stiff and the knockback was insane. There were many jumps with nearly precise pixel requirements and ledges you would fall off of when you thought you had space. The worst enemies were the Medusas and Eagles that were supposed to be minor enemies that would kill you in a single hit.
It's like no-one ever said "should most of our difficulty come from making jumps? Is that fun?"
I agree with all of that. I think that sometimes game developers get too wrapped up in their own vision and never really stop to consider if it's actually fun or not.
@@quwebs I think for whatever reason it wasn't as obvious in the early days. Everybody was learning. As a kid I accepted the pits=death part, even if I thought that some of the enemy placement was clearly bad.
During the 16-bit era, developers probably had a better idea what was fun, but the "make it hard for rental" pressure was there.
In some ways I don't think until "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" everyone realized that a game could completely let the player get away with falling in a pit (which is ironic considering what the original Prince of Persia was).
@@kyleolson8977 Later in Prince of Persia (2008) (the weird one off) they removed death by falling completely xD
So Dark Souls on the NES?
It is a bit similar, isn't it?
I think the way you often jump and hit the enemies on their head is similar to how you fight human shaped mobs in Zelda II but yeah it's got that vibe too.