Barbarian

Copyright : Palace Software | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

The evil sorcerer Drax desires Princess Mariana and has sworn to wreak an unspeakable doom on the people of the Jewelled City unless she is delivered to him. However, he has agreed that if a champion can be found who is able to defeat his demonic guardians, the princess wil be allowed to go free. All seems lost as a champion after champion is defeated.
Then from the forgotten wastelands of the North, comes an unknown barbarian, a mighty warrior, wielding his broadsword with deadly skill. Can he vanquish the forces of Darkness and free the Princess?....only you can say.

Graphics

Barbarian is without a doubt one of the most well loved and perhaps well known 8-bit fighing games ever, when this baby was released I doubt the developers had any idea just how popular it would be. The graphics in the game are spectacular, characters are extremely well drawn (though some of them do look the same in different costumes) with rich colours on offer from level to level and location to location, animation is also on top form with some extreme violence and black humour for everyone to enjoy. A good example of graphical brilliance in Barbarian is the finishing move in which you slice the head off your oponent and a strange creature will walk on, kick the head off screen and then drag the body - superb!!!

Sound

Sound is on top form also with some very nice music before each and every match along with a nice "you did it" style tune at the end of each level. Combat sounds are also on offer, from the "ching!" of the swords to the slashes of the blade and the crunch of your opponents head on the final move. There is nothing to fault here either, trust me we looked around for a while and simply couldn?t find anything worth moaning about - plus this game was a childhood favourite so we here at CPC Zone highly recommend it.

Gameplay

Gameplay is as simple as beat-em-ups can get, simply fight your oponent using kicks and sword combinations until one of you falls down dead and gets dragged off the screen - then go back to step 1 and do it again on the next level. Although the gameplay is shallow it doesn?t stop it from being a true classic, at the time of this game being developed and finally being released stuff like this had never been heard of before. Imagine a game were you could litteraly chop up your friends or the computer controlled characters and actually see the blood splashing on the floor, even better when the rumour of the "beheaded" combination was sent around people couldn?t wait to get the game and load it on their beloved CPC.
Barbarian is the kind of beat-em-up that is crying out for a remake though if this game was released today we doubt that it would have had the same status in another ten years, blood and guts in todays computer games is something we have come to expect from great games and finishing moves haven?t been impressive since the arrival of Mortal Kombat in the mid 90s. No this game was released at the best time it could?ve been, people quite rightly qued up in the software stores for a copy of this game and after waiting the 20 or so minutes for the tape to load couldn?t believe there eyes...a true classic that should be played by absolutely everyone out there.
Grab this game now, we don?t care if you?ve played it over and over again in the past it deserves your attention, no it DEMANDS your attention. Have we talked this game up enough yet? well what are you waiting for get it and play it NOW.