Medieval Mayhem Review
Atari VCS 2600 (Author: Michael)

Nowadays one associates "Party fun" with Singstar or perhaps Mario Party. Back in the day more than twenty years ago things were different. Usually you were happy just to be able to play a game together with a friend. Warlords was a veritable fun-bomb with its four-player mode, although it had been heavily slimmed-down in the graphics department. Thanks to SpiceWare this has now been corrected, let's see how it turned out.

Whoever thinks this is a simple hack is way off: The game has been re-programmed and therefore [artistically] re-interpreted from the ground up, and the effort has definitely paid off. The 32KByte Module contains everything a player's heart desires. To begin with one chooses the various game options one wants to fight with from the start menu. Here one decides, among other things, how many players there are and in which corners they are situated. Besides the number of fireballs to appear in the game, their speed is also set here.

[Graphic 1] [Graphic 2]

A new addition is the possibility to decide whether a fireball can be caught by the player or computer opponent. In the game this is done so that when you press a button [key?], the fireball sticks to the game character [= "sprite"?] and thereafter when you release it, it shoots away. This adds a tactical note to the flow of the game [or just "gameplay"?]. There's something here for everyone: Four different difficulty levels ensure that everybody should find challenge they need.

[Graphic 3] [Graphic 4]

The animation[s] in the game, which were developed by David Vazquez, who also did the artwork for the game, are exceptional. For instance, the first fireball of the game doesn't just show up [out of nowhere], but is brought into play by a large fire-spewing dragon. And after a win, the victorious player's knight runs across the screen and is celebrated. As expected, the four-player mode leaves no wish unfulfilled, and should even today be able to attract quite a few players to the console.

[Graphic 5 ("Michael thinks:")]

A true Must-Buy for the Atari 2600: Besides the exciting duels against three computer opponents, the true joy of the game only appears in a fight against three human players. With its many sensible options, and graphics that are fabulous in the context of the VCS, this game should attract quite a few XBox and PlayStation gamers. The only minus is the fact that you need Atari Paddles to play the game (and it would also be nice if the AI's rate of difficulty could be adjusted). Buy it now, and that's an order!

Positive              Negative\n* Gaming fun for up        * Unfortunately playable\n  to four players            only with paddles\n* Lots of options\n* Very good animations\n  (dragon, knight)\n\nDeveloper:              [link|http://www.spiceware.org|SpiceWare]\nDistributor:            [link|http://www.atariage.com|AtariAge]\nGenre:                  Action\nOnline functionality:   No\nRegional code:          PAL\nNumber of players:      1 - 4\nLanguage:               English\nAvailability:           November 29 2006\n\nGraphics      8   Total\nSound         8\nGameplay      9   8.6      [Graphic 6 (Sphere)]\nMultiplayer  10

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