Swords and Serpents (NES)

RPG week continues!

Difficulty: ***1/2
Sound: **1/2
Graphics: ***1/2
Overall: 9 1/2 stars out of 15

Gather your steel and wit. Its time to go serpent hunting! Grab a few of your buddies for a nice brawl through some dark dungeons! Acclaim brings us its unique four-player RPG Swords and Serpents!

There is a total of 16 different mazes to explore in the game. There are many traps and teleporters that will make your life a living hell down there. The latter levels are truly devious. The game would be next to impossible without a strategy guide or making your own maps. Its that tough. Oh and another thing, you'll need to find your magic spells by finding them writen on the walls! Be sure to check every corner as most of the latter spells are must haves.

The game will have you finding various items to get through certain parts of the game, and there is quite a bit of backtracking. Remembering (and hopefully writing down) the various clues will get you further ahead in the game. What really sucks is that you only get three healing temples in the game (levels 1, 5 and 10!) so use your magic points wisely.

The opening music is pretty catchy. A very high fantasy theme that just screams go out and explore! But the main theme is just okay. Come to think of it, you don't really get that much to hear otherwise. Bummer. The sound effects however, are really nice. Defeating an enemy, moving between levels and the hearing the zoom tubes... all nice! The sounds that your weapon makes on contact with the enemies...not so nice.

The game hosts many enemies that are colour swaps of one another. But, the sprites are big, colourful and well detailed (I like the spider and the trolls!) The mazes themselves are usually fitted in one solid colour. And that's about it. Oh, and why is it that your characters are never shown in the game? Not even a picture or anything? Ugh.

Swords & Serpents is a really unique game that allows 4 players to try to slay said beast. There are plenty of levels to delve into, but getting side tracked by zoom tubes and teleporters can be a real drag! Being far between temples when you are badly hurt and in need of some MP also adds to the games difficulty. While the music is not all that special, the various sound effects are its saving grace. The sprites are big, colourful and detailed. But the maze itself leaves you with a bland environment to explore. If you want an RPG that can support up to four players, you can't beat this game.