WeaponLord

The Good
I'm the very first moby-user to review this game. And that tells you quite much about it's obscurity. Basically, Weaponlord is a one-on-one fighting game set in a barbaric world, inhabited by... well, barbarians. There are seven fighters to chose from, each with his, or her own arena, an additional boss, and two boss-arenas (in arcade mode, you can play with the boss character also). Pretty basic stuff. Or as it seems like at first.

GRAPHICS: The first thing that one would realize, after popping this game in, is that evidently, this is the most detailed fighting game for the SNES by far. The graphics are amazingly well done. Most fighters are covered with cuts and bruises, have an abnormal amount of nonexistent, yet overblown muscles, well defined clothing, and of course, a large rusty weapon. If you got used to play with HD fighters on a huge plasma monitor, you might miss the point, but if you play this game right after Street fighter 2, you'll see what I was talking about.

DESIGN: There aren't that many barbarian related videogames, let alone fighting games. Even though it's just all too obvious, that the two things should go together really well. Maybe it's because most videogames are developed in Japan, and they just don't have anything to do with musclebound, Conan-like barbarians. However, as I grew up looking on classic Sci-fi and Fantasy illustrations, I have a weakness for this kind of setting. Campy? Yes, of course it is, but they kept in in style so well, the atmosphere immediately draws you in. It's so much fun to fight in arena made entirely from several meters tall horned skulls, isn't it?

INNOVATIVE FIGHTING SYSTEM: As the title suggests, the gameplay is mainly about swordplay. You can only attack with your weapon, and you will do most of the defense with it also. Depending on the timing and position of your blow, you can deflect the opponents attacks in many different ways, and even break his sword. It makes fights more exciting, and less predictable.

X-BAND COMPATIBILITY: I have no idea what that means. Is it undetectable by radars maybe?

The Bad
CONTROLS AND SPEED: The controls feel delayed. Not horribly, but you'll definitely notice it. And in a game where a good timing is crucial, this kind of problem is hardly acceptable. Come to think of it, the whole game seems to run in slow motion. I thinks it's due to the difference between the NTSC and PAL systems. See, the American standard, for television framerate is 30 fps, and the European is 25. Most developers therefore juiced up the framerate in the PAL version of their games. Visual Concepts Entertainment, Inc. seemingly didn't do this. I don't know why.

LACK OF BALANCE: At first, I've found this game insanely difficult, in league with Eternal Champions, for example. It's very ease to get stuck under one of the opponents overwhelming combos, or just a series of very fast hits in a row, without being able do anything against it (just like in Mortal Kombat). Whatever I've tried, I couldn't get over the third opponent. Then I realized, that the AI is even dumber than me. There is one undefeatable strategy to beat ALL the enemies in the game. Get them cornered (this one's optional), kneel down (again, optional), and hit them as many times, as fast as possible. Since they cannot break your frenzy, once they get hit, they're dead meat. The only thing that eventually stops this series of hits, is that your opponent's getting further and further by each one of them, and after a while they'll get out of range. But it's a slow process, so doing 14 hit combos is a common thing in Weaponlord. Seriously, the easiest way to beat the game is to use one attack only. Unfortunately, this flaw can turn the game into the most repetitive (one)button-masher ever.

The Bottom Line
Weaponlord Is the best looking fighting game on the SNES, but unfortunately came too late, and despite the innovative fencing system, the gameplay is not good enough to stand a chance against more popular titles, as for example Street fighter 2. The story-mode can be played through in minutes, so it's recommended for two players. It's much more fun that way.