Download Death Sword

Death Sword is a PC conversion of Barbarian, a huge hit at the end of the 80's. I first played it on my C64: two powerful warriors with their swords fighting one against the other. Characters in the game were big and able to perform many moves and attacks. Barbarian was published in the times when epic movies and comics were quite popular and it was more than obvious what was the inspiration for this game.

There were two versions that both carried the same name, and their gameplay was identical. In one of them, you fight beside some sort of lake and in the woods, but the other has a different story. The evil wizard Zack has kidnapped a beautiful princess, and it will take a real hero to save her. You must defeat eight of Zack's warriors and then Zack himself in his own castle and rescue the princess. What better story do you need? Well, if anyone finds this story similar to the first part of Conan the Barbarian (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) he's not wrong. The main music theme sounds like the theme from the same movie.

Death Sword is actually the union of both Barbarians. At the beginning you'll get to choose which game you would like. The PC conversion is no match for the C64 original, but it's fun to play. The graphics and music are good considering the limitations of CGA and PC speakers, but the sound effects consist merely of a few beeps. The controls are the biggest problem and were created to model a joystick. Like in many other conversions, you once again meet with eight buttons ("U", "I", "O", "J", "K", "N", "M", ",") and left Shift as fire. If you don't have a joystick, you'll probably find this game too hard to play due to the controls.

So, if controls are no problem for you or you have a joystick, give Death Sword a try and don't be surprised if you find yourself hooked to the monitor, swinging the sword while the challenge is releasing floods of adrenaline into your blood.