Barbarian or as it was called in the United States, Death Sword, was first released in 1989 for the C64 and later ported to other systems including the Acorn, Amiga, Amstrad, Atari, Apple II, BBC Micro, MS-DOS and ZX Spectrum. It was a fine game indeed that featured a one to two player mode as each Barbarian faced each other off in deadly combat. What set this game apart from other combative titles was the ability to slice at each other to the death, which usually ended up with a head being chopped clean off and kicked to one side. It is was a game that has lived on through a generation and although the Deathsword 128k remake isn't new, the latest Barbarian CPC for the megadrive is!
First up though is the Deathsword 128k remake, this version was given a real good touch up in the graphics department, from the detailed sprites to the detailed palette and backgrounds. It also featured in my opinion smoother control and enabled good usage of the Amstrad CPC 128k systems. Available to download from HERE with a 128k version also available for PC Windows users!
The next version which is even more impressive is the BarbarianCPCMegadrive release, which has the CPC DeathSword128 graphic pack and enables the game to be played on an emulator such as Kega Fusion or even a real megadrive!
Which can be downloaded from HERE with lots of other open source versions from the main website ( Forum Discussions / Website )
So with all that said and done, it is both impressive to see such fine games remade and the ability to once again chop a Barbarians head off!
Excellent game. I used to play on the keyboard while my friend would use the joystick (his preference) - what set this game aside from the others of it's generation was firstly a fast, enjoyable two player and also the ability to start your next fighting move before finishing the previous one. This led to seamless fighting style changes mid fight that kept the other person guessing. Great fun!!
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