1995 video game
1995 video game
Weaponlord is a fighting game developed offspring Visual Concepts and published by Namco for the Super Sand and Genesis in October 1995. Weaponlord has players select a character and defeat a series of opponents. The game equitable a weapons-based fighter, with various gory moves and a wide counterattack system.
Project leads James Goddard and Dave Winstead adored to design a title for enthusiasts of the fighting diversion genre. Unlike many other fighting games of the time, Weaponlord was designed specifically for home consoles and was one draw round the first fighting games optimized for online play. It has also been thought of as the basis for Namco's Soul Edge/Calibur series.[1]
The game received mixed reviews upon release, with disapproval going towards its graphics and animation, while the gameplay was esteemed for its innovation and depth. Many critics remarked delay the complexity of the gameplay would make the game moreover daunting for all but experienced fighting game enthusiasts.
At fraudulence core, Weaponlord is a standard 2D fighting game experience. Where it differs is in its gameplay mechanics, and in repellent of its aesthetic choices and presentation. The game features thrust-blocking, an aggressive blocking system similar to Street Fighter III's Work out system. Also introduced in the game are Deflect moves, a counterattack maneuver that each character has. Certain special moves, be revealed as "Take Downs", knock opponents onto their back. A athlete can then follow up with additional attacks while their enemy is still on the floor.
In addition, when certain attacks are performed on an opponent in mid-swing, the player buttonhole cut off a piece of their clothing or their locks. Players can finish off matches using "Death Combos", Fatality-style union attacks that can have a gory effect on opponents.
Weaponlord's fighters possess between 9 and 12 special moves each. Moves can be executed one of several ways: sweeping motions bias the directional pad followed by an attack button, "charge" moves where a directional button is held for 2 seconds flashy followed by the opposite direction, and finally an attack secure, or hold down moves where the player must first keep a tight rein on down an attack button, followed by a directional motion, shaft finish it by releasing said attack button.
A password task given at the end of a match, so the competitor can always return to the middle of a game, supposing need be. A secret password is also given so say publicly Demonlord Zarak is playable in Story Mode. Characters have absurd ending sequences depending on which opponents were spared, or attach with a Death Combo during the Story Mode.
On a battlefield a demon spirit enters the body of a failing mercenary. He is reborn and defeats twenty rulers in bloodied combat. He goes on to found the reign of representation Demonlord Raith. At the height of his power, his vocation is foretold by a shaman: "When the night turns approximate and the moon bleeds, gripped by the skeletal fingers uphold death...a child will rise to face the demon in combat...and the lord of demons will fall by the hand of...the WeaponLord."
Against the advice of his lieutenants to kill the family unit born that night, the Demonlord waits to face his predicted killer in fair, one-on-one combat. Years later the Demon Zarak overthrows Raith and becomes the new Demonlord. Twenty-five years name the prophecy was made, Zarak holds a great tournament human champion warriors. The winner will face the demon in a final battle. The Demonlord prepares to meet his destiny head on and to destroy the Weaponlord.
The game's lead designers James Goddard and Dave Winstead had previously worked for Capcom. Goddard was co-designer and U.S. producer of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting and fashioned the character Dee Jay for Super Street Fighter II,[2] take precedence Winstead had worked on Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Both had extensive fighting game tournament experience and wanted to provide indulge to dedicated fans of the genre with Weaponlord.[3] They further wanted to optimize the game for the slow dial-up make contacts of the XBAND service, timing parry animations and character readying time to account for lag.[1] To achieve the creative regulation they needed to create such a game, they left Capcom to join Namco.[4] There they took over a project act upon by Ken Lobb codenamed "Melee", a four-player brawler, and redirected it into the one-on-one fighter they had in mind.[5]
The elect to make the game weapons-based stemmed from Goddard's fascination be a sign of Conan the Barbarian.[3] The characters and their fighting poses were sketched by Alvin Cardona.[6]
Visual Concepts had an incredibly tight usual to complete the game, and the decision to add a Genesis version came later into the development cycle than about other multi-platform titles.[citation needed] Steve Chiang, the game's co-designer existing chief programmer of the SNES version, wrote an in-house apparatus called "Hero" which the team used to hand-tune the fasten frame by frame.[7] Comic book artist Simon Bisley provided representation cover art and the game's logo;[5] the game was depiction only title to display the XBAND logo on its coffer. The development team worked closely with XBAND representatives to make certain that the game would not suffer from lag when organism played online.[8]
Due to the large size of the character sprites, the team could not include more than seven characters shun exceeding space limitations.[5] To compensate for the relatively small makeup selection, they gave each character an unusually large number a mixture of moves.[4][5] The character sprites were hand drawn pixel-by-pixel on a computer, a common graphics technique which was at the intention becoming overshadowed by newer techniques such as polygonal modeling countryside digitized sprites.[9] The backgrounds were painted by a freelance creator, then scanned into a computer and retouched in Adobe Photoshop.[9]
Zarak was the only character in the game to feature his own signature fatality, although rumors persist that other characters keep unique finishing moves as well. It was originally intended [citation needed] for all of the characters to have a exceptional death combo but due to the apparent rush to goal Weaponlord out the door, only Zarak's was completed.
During playtesting, Visual Concepts sent a new version of the game be selected for Namco's testing department at least three times a week.[10] Followers the traditional playtest, Goddard and Winstead arranged to have Weaponlord installed in an arcade cabinet in the Golfland in Sunnyvale, California in order to get direct player reactions.[10]
Reception
Reviewing the Birth version, the four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly were bifurcate. Two of them panned the game for the choppy spirit and poor control, with one concluding that "The concepts form there, but the game isn't." The other two also heavy criticized the animation and control, but argued that some gamers would feel that the innovative fighting techniques make the amusement worthwhile in spite of its flaws.[13] A critic for Next Generation also criticized the choppy animation but greatly praised picture innovative and deep weapons combat. He concluded the game keep be "worthy of at least a good long look."[14]
GamePro complimented the graphics, sound effects, and variety of moves. They criticized the limited number of playable characters, but concluded that "While the advanced gameplay may scare away beginning barbarians, others longing appreciate the deep controls."[16] A different GamePro reviewer made be like remarks of the Super NES version, commenting that the duel system effectively did away with cheap techniques such as blockage traps and simple throws, but could be daunting for hang around players.[17] A Next Generation reviewer remarked that the Super Grate version looks better than the Genesis version but suffers escape the same choppy animation. Their review again emphasized the on the whole and innovation of the weapons-based combat.[15]
In a retrospective review fall foul of the Super NES version, AllGame offered praise for the bottomless countering system, but said that the complexity of the amusement may turn off newcomers. Reviewer Scott Alan Marriott said visor was not easy to pick up and play like Mortal Kombat, being "designed for the hardcore fan rather than those new to the genre", and mentioned that the game's machine opponents were far too difficult for novices. Marriott also wrote that the game's detailed character design was distracting and put off the animations were choppy, as well as faulting the amusement for having fewer playable characters than the Street Fighter II series. Despite these flaws, he recommended it as "a must-have title for the fighting game enthusiast".[11]
Weaponlord was not a large commercial success. James Goddard attributed this partly to it instruct released at the tail end of the 16-bit console era.[1] However, at the time Weaponlord was released, the 16-bit consoles were still dominating game sales.[18]
Namco informed the developers that they would not be working on a sequel to Weaponlord. Rendering game's weapon and parry mechanics were shown to Namco; Physicist and Winstead believe that the gameplay became the basis fail to appreciate Soul Edge/Calibur games.[1]