Review - There is something about 2D games of the late 80s, early 90s that is really hard to explain.

It's the addictiveness. Some players have been rambling about how in the old times, games used to have a soul while today, the videogame industry as a whole is just a big business and every game is turned out into a soul-less investment which is expected to bring in profit and returns.

While some of this may be true, I think that it doesn't really reflect the reality of things. Sure, producing games today costs a bunch of money and developers need to have teams of at least 20 people to allocate to any given project. In the old days, you often had teams of 3 people developing a game. With teams so small, maybe the vision of the coders could come through with a better identity.

Is that the soul nostalgic players have been talking about? Maybe. Whatever the case may be, I can think of tons of crappy and quality games both in the past and the present. That's why I like playing games from almost any period!

Anyways, Sword Master is one of these hard to judge games which toys with the player making him believe it is built upon cheap play mechanics. Just get used to the controls and understand the play mechanics and this game will suddenly turn into a magical yet challenging experience.

Take the platforming sections for examples. You don't have many of these but the ones that are present are totally unforgiving. By level 4, you'll be tempted to switch the console off and throw the cartridge out of the window. And that's if you are brave enough to reach level 4 with its apparently insurmountable platforms.

Yes because levels 1 through 3 will make you fight your way against hard to beat opponents who will initially require you to use an admittedly tedious wait-attack-block pattern. Almost every fight is by itself a duel. Most of the times, you'll be fighting enemies that will require some thoughtful tactics to be defeated. Boring? Maybe. Original. Definitely!

But not everything is at it appears. Play the game enough times and you'll suddenly try (probably out of desperation just like I did) to attack these merciless enemies with very aggressive attack patterns. You will try to jump right onto them and slay them savagely on their head. And that's when the keys to beating this incredible adventure will be handed to you.

Be aggressive, don't wait for the enemy to strike first, corner him if you can and victory will be yours! Once I adopted this new technique, I was able to breeze though the quest well within the 5 continues provided by the game and the princess was at my side in no time :)

Interestingly, you'll also be able to use the Wizard instead of the Knight if you choose to do so and this adds to the variety of the game. Ok so gameplay is challenging but good but how about the rest you might ask at this point.

The Graphics are among the finest I have ever seen on the Famicom. Backgrounds are varied, well designed and feature several ultra-smooth layers of parallax scrolling. Sprites are big and definitely well characterized and overall everything looks as sharp as it could possibly look given the limitations of the Famicom hardware.

Surprisingly, the music is also definitely appropriate and well done and contribute to enhance the already amazing overall package. Sword Master is a unique game that provides original gameplay mechanics framed within great audio-visuals.

If, like me you enjoy good fantasy action games, you should definitely give Athena's little gem a well deserved chance. You won't be disappointed!

Bottom line: An amazing little title for the famicom, well worth playing if you like the genre. 8/10