Goodness gracious small balls of fire

Castle Warrior logo

CASTLE Warrior: The name conjures a warrior so hard that even battlements quake in fear. Real life, or what passes for it, is never that good; it's the old story of warrior breaking into the opprssive character's castle.

Much the same idea as those classic mainframe games Hack and Moria, except this one's got graphics and sound. Pan back in time and space, in suitably impressive Hollywood style, to a land which has known peace for, well, at least 50 years.
Edelwulf the Great united all the tribes by the time honoured technique of whomping them until they gave in.
Edelwulf's son, Edelred the Good, was more of the peaceful and wise ruler type. Well, maybe "was" isn't quite right - but it might be, soon. For the one malcontent, Zandor, just happens to have poisoned the king's food, and the end is nigh for Ed the G.

For such a peaceful place, the king's son, Edred the Brave, is uncommonly handy with a sword. I suppose it could be called a ferrous deterrent, the Olde Worlde answer to the ICBM. Considering Edred's got the musculature of an overcooked chipolata and has the delicate footsteps of a skipping elephant, he's pretty sharp with the old blade.

Edred - that's you, if you're a little slow on the uptake - has vowed to bust into Zandor's stronghold and convince the old codger that handling over an antidote is a fair alternative to becoming the world's first human kebab.
Zandor is hip to his ruse, and has rigged up a few surprises. The entrance hall is filled with evil creatures, all of which aren't good for the health.

If the manual's to be believed, there's a large snake at the middle of the passage. Rice wine would be enough to take the feet from any hero, but it turns out to be a ravening typo in the shape of a snake which wobbles at you while spitting fireballs. These kill you, but the idea is to kill the monsters by returning the fireballs.

Zandor's castle isn't your standard Wimpey home. Once past the spacious entrance hall, it's through to an underground river, guarded by a dragon even more dangerous than a crazed rottweiler. A few well aimed spears get rid of that pest. Once on to the river - where a canoe appears, thankfully - it's a dodge-the-nasties trip along the river.

The only thing between you and Zandor is Zandor's house pet, Jibbs the Monster. This guy is not nice. He must be hell on the postman.
And Zandor isn't exactly a pushover, what with all the nasty spells he has a habit of chucking - a degree of agility is required here. After that, it's all over bar the residual monsters who pop up on the way home.

Castle Warrior, if you took it all apart and analysed it, could be quite impressive. But when reassembled it just doesn't hang together. The subject matter has stood the test of time well, but the small, badly animated sprites on a tiny screen do not help. The sampled sounds are excellent, yet fit together to form a tune of truly astonishing artlessness.

The only saving grace, sound-wise, is the inclusion of Delphine's funky saxophone on the high score sheet. When you offset this against the exceptionally dire drum effects, the sound's a bummer.

If you're after a Kick-the-Necromancer-in-the-Balrogs type game, Castle Warrior probably won't do anything for you. Mind you, after the rather astonishingly clever Bio Challenge, Delphine has set itself a hard act to follow.

Castle Warrior logo

DELPHINE SOFTWARE £24.99 * Joystick

Fifty years ago, there was a battleground which lay between two nations. Edelwulf The Great and his army fought it out with their opponents and triumphed, Edelwuf taking the crown and uniting the two countries. Peace and tranquility and all that malarkey reigned and everything was hunkydory. Eventually, Edelwulf died and was succeeded bu his eldest son, Edelred The Good. He was a pretty decent bloke as well, ruling with a fair hand and not imposing too much tax on the population.

However, not everyone in the country was happy. Zandor, an evil wizard, had been banished to a castle on the farthest part of the bleakest corner of the kingdom. He was a fairly grumpy sort of guy, so he decided to get rid of Edelred and seize the kingdom for himself.

Must be a pretty hot wizard, evil or not, because he managed to get himself inside the castle's defences and poison the King's food. Things are looking grim. The King is ringing death's doorbell and no-one knows of an antidote. No-one, that is, except Zandor. Edred The Brave (that's you!) has volunteered to find Zandor and force the cure out of him.

There are six levels to hack your way through before you can get the antidote safely to the King. The first is the Corridor Of Death leading to Zandor's castle. You must slash your way through a variety of bloodthirsty beasts, including a huge golden snake and a massive green giant (except this one isn't selling sweetcorn) both of which can only be destroyed by returning their own fireballs.

At the end of the tunnel is the Dragon Olisos, who guards the river. This unpleasant character spits fire at you, in-between attempts to catch you in his wicked, sharp claws.

Next you have to negotiate the underground river. Avoid the rocks and the stalactites which fall on you. At the end of the river is the Jibba, who is tackled in the same way as the dragon. Penultimately you have to confront Zandor, who sits on a throne throwing spells. Kill Zandor with the sword and collect the antidote, and then you can set off to save your father.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Generally, the graphics in Castle Warrior are fine: the tunnel scrolling is a bit poor, but everything else looks good. The dragons are impressive, the animation is smooth, and colour has been used to great effect. Sound is even better. Edred's footfalls are convincing, the rest of the FX aren't anything special, but this is made up for by a brilliant tune.

JUDGEMENT

Unfortunately, good looks and good sounds aren't everything. Despite the slick presentation, there's quite a bit missing from the gameplay. The first level moves annoyingly slowly: you find yourself instinctively pushing the joystick forward to move things along faster! The second level looks good, but unfortunately the sheer lack of content makes it very boring after a while and since the fourth level is almost identical in every respect except the graphic, the same applies. This rather lowers the lastability of the game, and as such decreases your value for money considerably. Still, it's well presented, and if you place importance on high-class graphics and sound you'll find it more enjoyable than would someone who couldn't care less as long as it plays well.

Castle Warrior logo

Wer wollte schon immer einmal Prinz sein? Die Gelegenheit ist günstig, im aktuellen Action-Game von Delphine Software such ein vergifteter König einen Stammhalter, der ihm binnen eines Tages das Gegenmittel ranschafft.

Hach, ich mag diese schmalzigen Märchen-Stories: Nachdem der böse Zauberer Zandor vor Jahren schon in eine entlegene Ecke des friedlichen Königreichs Pacifia verbannt wurde, sinnt er nun auf Rache. Als dann König "Edelred der Gute" anläßlich eines Festtagsmahls vergiftet zu Boden sinkt, ist alles klar: Der junge Prinze muß lostigern, um dem üblen Meuchler kräftig auf die Birne zu hauen und das Gegenmittel zu organisieren. Daß der Weg zum schurkischen Magier mit allerlei Gefahren gepflastert ist, versteht sich wohl von selbst...

Nach "Bio Challenge", das trotz guter Kritiken kein Verkaufsschlager wurde, liegt mit "Castle Warrior" nun das zweite große Spiel der französischen Delphine-Truppe vor. Als erstes sticht die ungewöhnliche Perspektive ins Auge: Alle Feinde und Hindernisse nähern sich dem muskulösen Heldensprite dreidimensional von vorne. Am ehesten läßt sich die Optik mit den 3D-Hits von Sega (Space Harrier, Out Run etc.) vergleichen.

Das erste der sechs Level wartet gleich mit einer Menge scheußlicher Vampire und grapschender Gliedmaßen auf. Hier gilt es, die eigene Haut mit einem gekonnten Sprung zur Seite oder einem satten Schwerthieb zu retten. Am Ende des dunklen Ganges lauern dann noch eine Mega-Cobra und der grüne Riese (es dürfte sich um den jüngeren Bruder des weißen Riesen handeln, aber keine Ahnung, wieviel Waschkraft der nun hat). Die beiden unfreundlichen Gesellen lassen sich nur besiegen, indem man deren Feuerbälle auf sie zurückschleudert. Kein leichtes Unterfangen, zumal die Joysticksteuerung sehr zäh ausgefallen ist, und durch den 3D-Effekt die Position der Gegner kaum jemals genau ausgemacht werden kann.

Als kurzes Intermezzo folgt ein großer Drache, der das benötigte Kanu nicht freiwillig rausrücken will. Mit dem Speer mach man dem Lindwurm einen kurzen Prozeß. Spielerisch geht es dann wie in den ersten beiden Levels weiter, unter anderem bei einer Wildwasser-Bootfahrt und einer Platzrunde rittlings auf einem Flugdrachen.

Was Grafik und Sound betrifft, ist "Castle Warrior" schön gelungen. Die Bilder sind allesamt mit viel Liebe zu Farbe und Detail gemalt, und die dreidimensionalen Animationseffekte glänzen durch besonders weiche Übergänge. Was da an atmosphärischen Stereoklängen aus den Lautsprechern kommt, ist ebenso sehr beeindruckend. Dennoch: Edel-Programmierung ist nun mal nicht gleichbedeutend mit einem guten Spiel! Irgendwie fehlt das Game hinter all den herrlichen Effekten, und wenn ich noch die unerfreuliche Steuerung addiere, bleiben nur sehr wenig Gründe, meinen Fünf Prinzen-Leben - die übrigens meist recht flott ausgehaucht waren - dicke Krokodilstränen nachzuweinen. (Frank Matzke)

Castle Warrior logo

Delphine Software
Price: £24.95

This game looks good value for money at first glance, with four different levels, some of which scroll across the screen, others which rely on 3-D update. The graphics are nice and bright, the sprites big and the scenario nothing more objectionable than the usual, 'the king is ill, you must collect his prescription from the chemists'. Of course, this particular trip to Boots is even more hazardous than visiting the East Ham High Street branch. Instead of old ladies slamming trolleys into you and kamikaze mini-cab drivers mounting the pavement, there are fire-breathing dragons, killer bats and other (bog standard) nasties.

The first level is in a Space Harrier sort of vein, the 3-D update is fine but the animation makes castle warrior's movements as convincing as those of Bod. As you charge down the corridor at an awesomely mundane pace, the idea is to dodge, avoid or just simply slash everything that gets in your way, this would be a lot more exciting, and a lot less frustrating if it wasn't for the fact that, due to the size of the sprites, only a dozen or so onscreen positions are available for your hero. The result is he escapes or is hit in jerky and awkward fashion.

The game then moves on to confront you with a beasty. Don't even try to follow your instincts and leap forward giving the offending creature a flying head-butt, you're firmly stuck to your 3D update. To kill the monsters, you have to intercept the fireballs they throw with your sword. Not exactly the stuff Indy films are made of.

Other levels involve paddling a canoe through an underground stream, but essentially this is much of the same. I get the feeling this is merely different graphics stuck over the same old machine code. The trouble with multi-games like this is well documented: the more games you get, the crappier those individual games tend to be. Castle Warrior is no exception to this, although it is at least well presented. There's also a jumping and rushing across the screen stage. This is an improvement from the constant 3-D stuff, but it would hardly make a budget game on its own. Games manufacturers are going to have to come to terms with the fact that we've all seen games like these before. Packaging them together, and even doing it well doesn't fool anybody.

If you don't have any games like this, CW isn't a bad buy, but you'd have to pretty hard up for software to splash out £25 on it.