Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance

Advertising Campaign

Acclaim billed this game as their bloodiest ever, but how do you get that message out? Bloodvertising! Acclaim planned (not sure how this turned out) to place advertisements in UK bus shelters that would bleed. For six days, cartridges behind the ads would spurt red dye which would spill out on to the ground (and cleaned up at the end of the one-week campaign).

Credits

Watch the credits for humorous "outtakes" and other surprises.

German Releases

Two versions of this game were released in Germany: an uncut version with the red USK age rating logo and a "modified" version which qualified for the USK 12 age rating. The modified version is easily recognised by the German subtitle Schwert der Rache (i.e. Sword of Vengeance), the uncut German version still has the English title, although the package blurb and the manual are in German. The games are identical, there simply is one gory version and one with reduced violence for the "younger players".

Historical References

• In this game, Romulus and Remus are presented as the children of Jupiter. In traditional mythology, they are identified as the children of Mars and are responsible for founding Rome. Romulus is said to have killed Remus, so we can guess who's wearing the comedy mask and who's wearing the tragedy mask in the game.

• The Dark Gods of the game, Phobos and Deimos, are called the "errant children of Mars." Errant maybe, but they belong to the Greek mythic tradition which places them as the children of Ares. They represent the aspects of Fear and Terror. Interestingly, Acclaim has much of this information on their web site.

• Historically, Emperor Trajan reigned from 98-117 AD (or CE). This game is set in 106 AD/CE but the story allows for any discrepancies. Trajan's achievements were set in stone, the famous Trajan Column, and he was followed by Hadrian, famous for the Hadrian Wall.

Sales

Sales of this game were clearly far below the expected levels. Enough to have contributed to Acclaim's bankruptcy? You decide. Lot number 2013 in the "pick the bones" auction of Acclaim's assets consisted of Nineteen Thousand One Hundred Seventy Three (19,173) unsold copies of Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance for PC.

Information also contributed by ClydeFrog and partykiller.