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"What kind of fighting games were around before Street Fighter? Rather boring, non-combo moving and close combat ones. That's what."

''...bet you can't beat a good Knight!'' is what this game challenges you to as it first boots up. This game was made by English Software and was probably inspired by all the EPYX Olympic-style Game releases. While there are eight different game types in Knight Games, six of them are one-on-one combat related. Unless you have another player to compete against, the computer will substitute. And, it is usually a pretty hard opponent to beat...especially when you set the difficulty to Knight.

After booting, you are presented with a graphical screen with eight choices. The joystick will move the game show style box to the game icon of your choice. Each icon looks like a man either in armor or some sort of Robin Hood style clothes. The top four games reside on side one of the disk. And, the bottom four reside on side 2. The good news is that once you load one of the eight games, it stays in the Commodore's memory until you select another game. Which means that repeating the same game over and over will save you some loading time. It also means that the game will demo that one (and only that one) game for as long as you do not select another.

For games, there are:

+ Sword Fight 1 (Both characters are dressed up in suits of armor and carry both a shield and a sword. They stand in the courtyard of a castle with a white flag with a red cross waiving in the background. There is a lot of atmosphere to look at. But, much of it is done in an old school coloring way, where two rather large pixels of color checkerboard each other. While it does work, there are very likely no video games that would even think of doing such a thing, these days. The idea seems to be as basic as to hack and slash your opponent with the sword until they lose all their strength and drop to their knees. Each character has two different strength meters. One is shown on the left for both characters. (Looks like discs of some sort in two colors.) As each character takes on damage, these columns of discs slowly disappear. Once they are gone, either another set will appear (Taken from the other meter.) or the character will drop. Then, there is the meter at the top of the screen for both characters. (Looks like a shield of two different colors.) This is like the overall reserve strength of both characters. Once those disc bars disappear, one of these will go to replenish that other meter. Once all of the shield meters and the discs are gone, the player has lost. (Death is probably not a result, though.) It's the strength on these meters and not the amount of times a character is dropped to their knees that counts. Each hit seems to add up so many points that are tallied at the bottom of the screen. Another way of winning the match is to have more strength than your opponent by the time the match timer runs out. (Which is done in a very nice and graphically fitting way...a candle that slowly burns as time moves on. The candle's wax slowly drips as the candle disappears. Matches can be set to last four, six or up to eight minutes.) The combat commences in a 2-D fashion, like most of the early one-on-on combat games did. You can advance and retreat a little. But, the rest of the joystick movements do various body movements that involve the shield and sword. While there is some strategy involved in using the correct counter-move to an attack and striking at your opponent's weak spot during a move, the overall concept is generally mindless combat until someone drops. The background music that plays is pretty well done. (As is the case with all the games and the menu screens.))

+ Sword Fight 2 (Just like the name implies, Sword Fight 2 is very similar to Sword Fight 1. It appears that all the moves that can be performed remain the same. Which pretty much leaves the background music, background visuals and suits of armor. The BG music is different and still very good. The visuals are now with the castle and town in the background with the Knights sword fighting on the grassy plains in front of it. They are also wearing a different suit of armor. Everything else is explained in Sword Fight 1.)

+ Quarter Staff (While all the moves are different, the same general idea is there. Two guys dressed in something out of Robin Hood keep kicking and whacking at each other with long staffs on a log that crosses a raging stream. The music is unique to the stage and is well done. The atmosphere around the two fighters is very colorful and gives a great sense of where you are. But, unlike the two sword fights, it is completely stagnant. Which is exactly what the ''raging stream'' shouldn't be. Oh, well. And, instead of taking your opponent to his knees, you try to knock him on his butt.)

+ Pike Staff (A couple Knights dressed in armor attack at each other with a staff that has a sort of hook and point on it. Each move uses that staff in a different way. Music is very good. Graphics are as colorful as all the other scenes. The Knights are fighting far away from the castle. (It's way in the background.) Not too much more to say.)

+ Archery (If you want to take a break from all the one-on-one fighting games, this is one of the two available alternatives. The idea is that you are an archer, shooting arrows with a bow at these distant metal horses on wheels. To aim, you place your cross hair sight somewhere in front of a metal horse and release your arrow. It will fly through the air, finding your sight mark almost two seconds later. If you hit the metal horse, you will hear a ting. Else, it will sound more like a plop. Forget about trying to aim at anything else than the metal horses pulled by a cable. Your sights won't be permitted to wander. (Although, it might have been really fun if they had and provided other targets.) Now, just aiming your sight is too easy. Which is why it simulates the unsteady hands of the archer character. Meaning, that cross hair will bounce around all over the place. Most of the screen is reserved for the stagnant atmosphere. Except for one little flag waving in the wind. The health meters are used to count how many arrows you have left. And, the point of the difficulty levels seems to make very little difference in this game. As far as I can tell, it only alters the total amount of time you are allowed in the session. It may also affect the steadiness of your sight a little, too. It's a guessing game if it is worth shooting as many arrows as you can or saving them. As you do get points for each arrow saved. But, landing a successful hit on a horse is worth more. You probably will never use up your entire stash of arrows, no matter how much time you choose to compete in.)

+ Crossbow (Crossbow has a very similar theme to Archery. Only, the targets are not metal horses, but two metal discs and a metal cross. And, instead of being moved at a constant rate of speed across the screen to the left, they stay in one spot and rotate on a timely basis. Your character is using a crossbow instead of a bow, this time. But, it does not help your shaky sights one bit. And, as before, you can't take aim at anything outside the three rotating targets area. Each target is worth a different amount of points, when you hit its face side.)

+ Ball & Chain (Back to the one-on-one combat scene. This time, there are two Knights fighting on the draw bridge over the moat of the castle with a ball & chain in one hand and a shield in the other. Each character wears a suit of armor. While the music is well done, most of it gets lost amongst the constant clanging of the spiked balls.)

+ Axe Man (This time, it appears to be two Axe wielding Knights in the throne room of the castle, as there are lots of treasures and such sitting around. And, as in Ball & Chain, the music loses out greatly to the sound effects.)

While there is a total of eight Knight Games available, what would really have been nice is if there were more variety in the kinds of games. Sure. Two or three different one-on-one fighting games would be nice. But, did we really need six? How about a Joust, or something?

What seems to pull the eight games together is the scores that you earn in each one. (There is a top score screen that tallies them up into a grand score for the two players. (Even if one is the computer. And, you can outscore it, as it does not get a chance to score in the two shooting games.)

Graphics: 7 out of 10.

While each game uses a wide variety of colors and visuals, it is almost always stagnant. Except for the occasional single waving flag, there is nothing that moves outside of the characters or the targets. Plus, many of the colors use an outdated look of dual, large pixels in a checkered pattern. Which is something that even many Commodore games didn't do by 1986. And, every game has zero scrolling capacity. What you see is what you get and nothing more. But, what is there is usually good eye candy. Just don't expect to interact with any of it.

Sound: 7 out of 10.

The music remains great throughout all the games, and is quite different for each one. The only problem is that any time a sound effect is called, it robs the music of that SID channel it was using. And, seeing as how most of the games are combat and require constant walking, banging, clanging sound effects, a lot of that game music will be cut down by two-thirds at most times. At least, all the games offer the option to turn the BG music on or off. All the games have a few sound effects. But, it pretty much comes down to steps, swings and weapon clashes. (Or arrow movements and hits or misses in the archery-type games.)

Controls: 10 out of 10.

The controls are easy to learn and remain constant and responsive in the two different genes that are really available. In the two archery games, the joystick moves the cross hairs and the button fires (When the arrow is ready.) And, in the six one-on-one fighting games, each primary joystick direction makes an attack move of some sort. (Just don't expect to be pulling off any fancy attacks by tapping left-left-right-up-button, or such.) The game doesn't really get much deeper than that.

Overall: 7 out of 10.

For fans of all those one-on-one fighting games, this classic might be worth checking out. It's good for both a one and two player game. But, if not, there is nothing more than a couple archery-type games in the stack. All in all, this is something like six little Street Fighter-type games and two Point Blank-type games stuck together inside one disk. If you don't like either of those genes, avoid this game. Otherwise, find it, if you can. Just don't pay a King's ransom for it.




Reviewer's Score: 7/10 | Originally Posted: 03/13/02, Updated 03/13/02

Back in medieval times there was plenty to keep your average armour-clad fellow amused: dragon bashing, wining, dining, wenching, crusading and of course partaking in the odd joust or two. Of knightly sport there was aplenty: bashing your partner with swords, lumps of metal or bits of wood -- and on the more placid side, firing bolts and arrows at moving targets. The latest release from English Software attempts to capture ye olde noble spirit of man-to-man combat, and offers eight different events to challenge your fighting prowess.

Before the games can get underway, a main menu has to be loaded. Once in memory, any of the eight events can be (singly) loaded. When an event loads, a menu is displayed which allows you to alter the length of play or switch off the in-game music. All events have a one or two player option, and in the fighting events a computer controlled knight makes up for the lack of a human opponent. After making your selection, the game can begin.

With all the fighting events victory is achieved by hammering the strength out of your opponent. Displayed to the left of the main playing screen are two sets of ten roses -- white ones for player one and yellow for player two. A successful hit with a weapon results in one of your opponent's roses disappearing, and if ten are removed then another ten appear. If these ten are duly disposed of, then your opponent falls to the ground and one of his ten shields is removed. To win the event you have to remove all ten shields, and doing so reaps a 'knight knockout bonus'.

A time limit takes the form of a candle which slowly drips, sway through the duration of the match, and this is displayed just above the roses. The score is shown underneath the main playing area at the bottom of the screen. A highscore table keeps track of the top score for both players in each event and any score logged into the table remains there for the duration of the games (unless it is bettered).

SWORDFIGHT I
This event takes place on the castle battlements with a splendid English countryside scene in the distance. The players appear on opposite sides of the screen, and then clank their way toward each other so that the fighting can commence. Eight fighting movements are made available to each knight and these are accessed by pushing the joystick in any one of the eight directions. Pushing diagonally gives a defensive movement and any other of the four points gives an offensive thrust or swipe.

QUARTERSTAFF
Remember the classic first meeting between Robin Hood and Little John when they both tried to cross a log bridge, and neither would give way to the other? The result was a quarterstaff fight in which Robin was toppled off his precarious perch into the water below. This event is very reminiscent of that fight and is set in a similar environment, with you battling another fellow over a perilous log bridge. Eight movements, four attacking and four defensive, are made available as you battle for supremacy.

ARCHERY
This is the first event to test your aiming skills rather than the strength of your bashing arm. Set in the fields outside the castle, the object is to hit as many moving targets as you can before you run out of either arrows or time. Away in the distance are two trees and between them trundle a series of wooden horses on wheels. Pulling back on the joystick strings an arrow and a cursor is bought into view with which you aim. The cursor wobbles alarmingly, and it takes a fair bit of skill to get it into position and press the fire button before it wobbles off target again.

BALL & CHAIN
Back to the fighting again, as you battle beneath the portcullis. Once again there are eight separate movements, including some vicious swipes, and overhead thumps are often made to your armour-clad persona. Plenty of variety in movement and plenty of scope for attack.

SWORDFIGHT II
This is very similar to the other event, although the fight takes place outside the castle with the battlements poking above the trees. A new set of armour has been given to each knight, but their movements are as the previous bout.

PIKE STAFF
Forget the peasants, let's have a pikestaff fight over their newly ploughed fields. Out into the country trot you and your piking partner. Four defensive and four attacking movements are made available to each knight as they tromp, stab and spike each other.

CROSSBOW
This is another event to test your hand/eye co-ordination, and it has you shooting three spinning targets. Pulling back on the joystick loads the bolt, and a split second later the aiming cursor appears. Guide this wobbling entity over a stationary target and shoot the bolt by pressing the fire button before it spins again, or the cursor moves off target. Time is of the essence here, so don't spend too long aiming your bolts.

AXEMAN
The last event is set post-feast, with glass strewn tables forming an arena. The knights face one another, a mean axe in one gauntlet and a shield grasped in the other. The standard four attacking and four defensive movements are available to each knight.

This is fun -- a nice variant on the beat em up theme with six bashing games and two other games thrown in for good measure. The multiload system is surprisingly fast and very easy to use, which makes a nice change from the usual 'wait half an hour' jobs. Although the events have eight moves as standard, each has its own sets of thrusts, parries etc, and once mastered they all have great potential for a really good fight. The defending and attacking moves all work well and it's easy to become very involved with the game when you're fighting. The graphics are great, with brilliantly animated sprites and some nice mediaeval backdrops. The eight tunes are all pretty good, and the sound effects are nicely atmospheric, with clanks and clinks as you bash your opponent's armour. I enjoyed playing this and strongly recommend you to have a look at it.

Presentation 95%
Speedy multiload system and plenty of in-game options.

Graphics 95%
Plenty of varied backdrops and beautifully drawn and animated sprites.

Sound 93%
Eight excellent mediaeval style tunes and very good, but few, spot FX.

Hookability 94%
From when the swords first meet you'll want to continue parrying and thrusting.

Lastability 91%
Lots of scope with the fighting events, especially with two human players.

Value For Money 89%
Eight great events for only 1.12 each!

Overall 90%
Plenty of variety, clanking and bashing -- don't miss it!