hello, my name's snes man. i've always hada soft spot for medieval games, you know, classic swords and sorcery adventures! ifyou give me a controller and let me pretend to run around as some loony bearded dude inchain mail, i'm a happy camper. i've also studied literature on king arthur and beowulfand sir gawain and all those dudes in college, so i love the era.
ace hardware paint, that's why i always wanted to get knightsof the round for the super nintendo, but i never got around to it until now. it's anuncommon game and it's pricey, at least by my cheapskate standards. i couldn't find itat the portland retro gaming expo when i was there so i just said screw it and shelledout $42 on amazon.com for the cartridge. but
hey, at least it was in good condition. mymission today is to talk to you in nitty-gritty detail about this capcom classic and answerthe question, is this game, in 2013, worth the moderately obnoxious price tag? i'll answer that and more in this grand videoso stayed tuned. let's get down to gaming. when you put in the cartridge, the epic storyunfolds. "legend says that the man who removes "excalibur"form the stone is destined to be king. one day while training to be a knight, arthurpulled the sword from the stone and so our story begins . . ." ooh look, it's merlin. "arthur, the legendarygrail can release the world from chaos. as
king, you must find it and use it to unifybritain under your rule." notice that there's no music here. cricket, cricket. "fight asone, brave men and together you shall find it." yeah, yeah okay, let's play the damn game.from the start, you can choose between three characters. the orlando bloomish lancelotwho's fast and wimpy, the slow and powerful percival, and arthur the balanced, boring,bland british king. speaking of b's, let's begin. here's level 1 of knights of the round: avery straightforward beat 'em up. if you've played final fight or double dragon, you knowwhat to expect. like a lot of action arcade
ports, you're move list is pretty limited.you have an attack, a jump attack, and a special move which drains some of your health. consideringthat you have to sacrifice a chunk of your own flesh just to use it, it's not the mostdevastating of moves. the most interesting move the game gives youis the block. press "x" and for a brief window of time, you can deflect enemy attacks andleave them vulnerable. very similar to the modern god of war or batman arkham asylumcombat style. i appreciate this being in the game and it certainly helps on the bosses,but i feel like capcom didn't make it as smooth as possible. why? well, if you hold the block for too long,the game punishes your character by stunning
them for a few seconds. so you have to doquick blocks to make sure that doesn't happen. and enemies always seem to wait till afteryour block to attack. i often stand in front of enemies, desperately blocking and theyjust stare at me with their dull little expressions and say "durrr, i'll just stand here for awhile and attack without warning." most of the enemies have really random, awkward patternsof attacking that are hard to predict. so, you're best off in this game just usingthe basic attack combo: 'y' button, 'y' button, 'y' button. i'm not saying that's a terriblething, i just wish knights of the round had reached its full potential! one little touch that adds some nice varietyis the horse. once and a while, you can summon
a noble steed that makes you stronger andlets you trample your foes with a double tap jump. it controls like a more cumbersome yoshi,but i still enjoyed the added variety. you get some human allies in this game onceand a while too. they're a bunch of faceless knights with their visors down who attemptto help you. they drop treasure once and awhile but that's all they're good at. the enemyis shooting some arrows? oh oh, we better stand in the way! dead, dead, dead. but thenat the end of some of the levels, these guys raise their swords in celebration like "wesaved the day! weren't we helpful?" those guys suck. but the main characters inknights of the round are pretty cool. arthur has a tight control style and his block seemsto be the easiest to use. percival is just
plain awesome because he's not even that slowand his attacks are the most powerful in the game. he even has a dash attack that no oneelse gets. double tap forward then press 'y,' and he does this charge slash thingy withhis axe. needless to say, i play as percival a lot. lancelot is my least favorite. some peoplelike him but i don't. his walking speed is just as slow as the other characters and hisattacks do no damage. even his jump attack, which strikes twice, only dents the enemy'shealth bar. i don't need lancelot and his silly, luscious golden locks. go back to thedesolation of smaug set where you belong, orlando!
so, do i enjoy knights of the round? sure!the setting is wonderful. the nice, detailed backgrounds and big sprites are fun to lookat. the castles look extra fancy and magnificent as you would expect. (it's only a model. shh!) and this is one of the only king arthur gamesout there, so there's just an aura of specialness to it. i also like how your character levelsup through the game and gets cooler armor and weapons. it's really linear since youcan't make any choices in the upgrades and they don't radically change the gameplay,but it's a nice little touch that makes you want to keep playing. i found this game to be really addictive.even when it annoyed me, with the awkward
block and some cheap bosses and enemies, ialways came back for more punishment. the co-op mode was pretty nice, since you coulddrop in at any moment during the gameplay. and here's a rare treat capcom gave us: whenyou lose a continue, you can start again mid-level, even mid-combat as if you had just put ina quarter. that is really rare in arcade ports for the super nintendo. thank you, capcom.you are a merciful god. the bosses in this game are easily the mostchallenging aspect. none of them are based on arthurian tradition to my knowledge. i'venever heard of king garabaldi or balbars the iron giant -- and neither has google apparently.i get the feeling that the japanese staff at capcom wasn't too interested in europeanfolklore when they made this game. they just
wanted to slap a famous character on a beat'em up and call it good. knights of the round is definitely an unsurprising,typical game. nothing in it is going to wow you or shock you with its innovation or daring.but it's a safe, comfortable experience. you get lots of continues and despite the highdifficulty and infuriating bosses, the general combat is fun enough to keep you coming backfor more. it's a solid entry in the 90s era of carefree, fun beat 'em ups. now, how does this game compare to king ofdragons, another uncommon, underrated medieval beat 'em up in the super nintendo library?i personally think dragons is a stronger title. it has crappier graphics and a smaller movelist, but it's deeper, man. takes you to the
depths of the incalculable human psyche. okay, i don't know if you've seen my old reviewof king of dragons but i really liked that one. i just had a soft spot for it, you know,medieval hack and slash with rpg elements? the rpg elements are stronger in that onebecause your characters are radically different from each other and their moves change throughoutthe game. the wizard even gets a flame staff! but in knights of the round, you just geta bigger, more colorful sword that plays the same as the old one. that's like waiting for christmas as a kidand getting a re-painted version of your old bike. here, son, it's better now because it'sblue! no, it still has that nasty, sagging
tire filled with sharp rocks, dad! you can'tcover your blatant lies with ace hardware paint! things to make it better: -more advanced rpg elements that actuallychange the gameplay as it goes on. -a more useful, powerful block.-stronger special attacks that actually justify wasting health.-and finally, enemies that actually tie back to recognizable king arthur legends or movies. my final score for this game is an 8 out of10, but a weak 8. it's a strong game, but it's not unique enough for me to say "wow,that's a stand out super nintendo classic."
if it weren't for king of dragons, i wouldsay this is the best medieval action game on the super nintendo. but on its own merits,i have to say knights of the round is pretty damn good. what do you think? if you're someonewho has played both, leave a comment and tell me which one you preferred. now, i'll answer a question i brought up earlierin the video. is it worth the money? for what i payed, yes. if you find this for under 50dollars, don't hesitate to get it and enjoy the simple, action-packed experience. butdon't spend any more than that because there are better beat 'em ups on the console likeking of dragons, tmnt 4, and arguably super double dragon.
knights of the round isn't the holy grailof gaming but it's a nice, simple fun one that will keep you entertained. thanks forwatching this review, guys. before i sign off, i'm gonna give a shoutout to some of the new friends i've been making on youtube. i'm not much of a social butterflyand i don't talk about other youtubers much, but i thought i would make an exception. i had a chance to meet a lot of great peopleand even some fans at the portland retro gaming expo in october. first is the channel retroliberty,where you can watch two badass californians, aaron and ricky, travel around to swap meetssearching for good deals on retro games. they've only been around for a year but they've alreadykicked my ass and got three times my subscribers.
and they deserve them all. second, is vintage video game geek. i've beenwatching him for years. he does excellent game reviews and his voice is hilarious. ican't describe it, it's just so articulate and precise; you have to watch. third is arcade impossible, where gregg hansenworks on expanding his basement arcade collection every episode. he is such a chill guy andhe has an amazing knowledge of arcade games. i got a chance to play joust with him at portlandand it was glorious. some more people i had a chance to talk withthere were the illustrious projared, the amazing nintendo reviewer nescomplex, the benevolentportlandian, the avid retro collector scott
from grimsie42, and luigi freakout123, a father-sonduo who were so kind to get me a pass to the event. i know it's really late to talk about theexpo, but you know me and my snail paced production schedule. i wanted to wait until a full reviewto slip in this little plug. anyway, thanks so much for watching the review and i hopeyou're having an excellent december. auf wiedersehen. and just to be extra soothing, good bye. i'lltalk to you again sometime soon.
