Crossed Swords

The one small problem with Crossed Swords is the limited number of moves available - swinging and thrusting the sword, a couple of magic blasts and two defences may seem a small amount, but get into the action and it's more than adequate. A thoroughly enjoyable hack 'n slash. Don't miss out if you have the cash!

Darüber hinaus ist es an einigen, wenigen Stellen im Spielverlauf möglich die Route zu wählen. Apropos Route, superlang ist CS zu allem Überfluss auch noch, bis Ihr vor dem finalen Bösewicht (Nausizz!!!) steht vergeht eine ganze Weile. Insgesamt finde ich Crossed Swords wegen der genannten Features ziemlich genial, was vor allem an dem stimmigen Gesamtkonzept und der super umgesetzten innovativen Idee liegt. Nicht zu vergessen natürlich die düstere Stimmung der teilweise genialen Hintergründe und die super passende Musik. Ich steh' drauf! (Es ist aber, wie viele der alten Neo Games, Geschmackssache.)

Crossed Swords has a very interesting gameplay model but doesn't quite have what it takes to become a classic. More monster variety would have helped, but the biggest thing going against the game is its sluggish controls. Even so it's a game that all Neo Geo fans should take a stab at.

Crossed Swords is a quality game, but it falls victim to the "unlimited continue" syndrome that plagues many Neo Geo titles. When you die, all you have to do is hit "Start" to pick up immediately from where you left off. Any creature you were fighting still has damage, and you don't even lose your gold. Plus there's no score to judge your performance. As a result, it's tempting to continue all the way to the end. I must have used about thirty continues to finish this game! As I was gradually wearing down the final boss, all I could think of was, "Doesn't this guy realize I have unlimited continues? Why does he have to make this so hard?" If you play Crossed Swords as long as I did (almost two hours), you will get tired of the repetitive action and running into the same enemies over and over again. In fact when it's finally over you may never want to look at it again. But despite its poor replay value, Crossed Swords is a unique title that should be experienced by Neo Geo owners.

In the action heavy, arcade style line-up for the Neo Geo hardware, you won't find a RPG (Japanese exclusive CD release Samurai Shodown RPG excluded). That makes Crossed Swords a unique entry, even though it too is almost non-stop action. It's requirement for extreme amounts of dexterity and reaction time will put it out of many fans control; it's the RPG elements that have a chance of drawing them in however.