King's Knight (1986)

Look: 7/10 Nice RPG Maker vibe look to it. Nothing spectacular though.

Sound: -/10 Not irritating but also didn't really notice it much.

Play: 6/10 I'm convinced something was up with my version bceause that first dungeon boss took way too many hits. Nope, apparently that's how it's meant to be without power-ups... (Oh, and there doesn't seem any way of indicating that you're doing damage/hitting the spot/etc) The way the edge of the screen worked was frustrating, like you could see an area but apparently couldn't walk to it. Took a bit to know where to expect the edge to be. In the end, I found it too tedious since I wanted to actually beat the game. Maybe if I were okay with just doing the four rounds and surviving I would have had more fun with it... but like without revealing the dungeon entrance, you'd miss the boss of the level anyway, so where's the fun in that? Cool idea, technically good execution, meh reality. Maybe I'm just post-sick tired...

Feel: 7/10 Cool idea to spice up a shmup: reveal secret items, need all 5 characters and those revealed items to win the final stage, allow you to go back to characters' levels in case missed stuff or died. I feel like I've been saying this a lot, but a cool idea and Feel--not so great in reality.

Attachment: 7/10 Welp after finishing the Knight's level, I wasn't looking that much forward to 4 more. I thought it was a cool idea to blend these adventure elements in a shmup, but instead it detracts from the shmup elements because you're tediously trying to get the element items (you can just go without them, but then you can't beat the game... I thought that was a cool idea, till I experienced it ha). Despite the fact I didn't make it that far, I still am giving this a 7 because there's a chance I will return to this when I'm not so sleepy and maybe I wont mind it as much. I mean, at first I was all excited just to follow a map and reveal those specific blocks, but there's a lot of "gotchya" traps with the way the terrain works and, well, a lot of adventure game-style tedium, which bogs down the shmup fun. Funny because I love adventure games and I love shmups... We'll see if I return to it...

Completion: Through the first stage, got all Elements and beat Dungeon Boss Playtime: 14 minutes

Published by Square, Kings Knight is a difficult but somewhat lost little gem in the genre of vertically scrolling shooters. Instead of the often reprised space ship, you take control of a Knight, Wizard, Thief and/or the Monster. You can (and you'll need to) control all four characters and you need to pick up tokens to switch between them as you make your way through the forest, over the hills, across the desert, and onward to the kingdom to rescue the princess. A breath of fresh air in terms of environment when it comes to 'shmups'. It has some flaws for sure, being unfair at times, but it says it's on the Wii store so if you own one of them I suggest you check it out.

[2,5] / [5]