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Hello, my name's SNES Man. I've always had a soft spot for medieval games, you know,
classic swords and sorcery adventures! If you give me a controller and let me pretend
to run around as some loony bearded dude in chain mail, I'm a happy camper. I've also
studied literature on King Arthur and Beowulf and Sir Gawain and all those dudes in college,
so I love the era.
That's why I always wanted to get Knights of the Round for the Super Nintendo, but I
never got around to it until now. It's an uncommon game and it's pricey, at least by
my cheapskate standards. I couldn't find it at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo when I was
there so I just said screw it and shelled out $42 on Amazon.com for the cartridge. But
hey, at least it was in good condition. My mission today is to talk to you in nitty-gritty
detail about this Capcom classic and answer the question, is this game, in 2013, worth
the moderately obnoxious price tag?
I'll answer that and more in this grand video so stayed tuned. Let's get down to gaming.
When you put in the cartridge, the epic story unfolds.
"Legend says that the man who removes "Excalibur" form the stone is destined to be king. One
day while training to be a knight, Arthur pulled the sword from the stone and so our
story begins . . ."
Ooh look, it's Merlin. "Arthur, the legendary Grail can release the world from chaos. As
king, you must find it and use it to unify Britain under your rule." Notice that there's
no music here. Cricket, cricket. "Fight as one, 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 Lancelot who'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: a very straightforward beat 'em up. If you've
played Final Fight or Double Dragon, you know what 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. Considering that you have to sacrifice a chunk of your
own flesh just to use it, it's not the most devastating of moves.
The most interesting move the game gives you is the block. Press "X" and for a brief window
of time, you can deflect enemy attacks and leave them vulnerable. Very similar to the
modern God of War or Batman Arkham Asylum combat 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 do quick blocks to make sure that doesn't happen.
And enemies always seem to wait till AFTER your block to attack. I often stand in front
of enemies, desperately blocking and they just stare at me with their dull little expressions
and say "Durrr, I'll just stand here for a while and attack without warning." Most of
the enemies have really random, awkward patterns of attacking that are hard to predict.
So, you're best off in this game just using the basic attack combo: 'Y' button, 'Y' button,
'Y' button. I'm not saying that's a terrible thing, I just wish Knights of the Round had
reached its full potential!
One little touch that adds some nice variety is the horse. Once and a while, you can summon
a noble steed that makes you stronger and lets 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 once and a while too. They're a bunch of faceless
knights with their visors down who attempt to help you. They drop treasure once and awhile
but that's all they're good at. The enemy is shooting some arrows? Oh oh, we better
stand in the way! Dead, dead, dead. But then at the end of some of the levels, these guys
raise their swords in celebration like "We saved the day! Weren't we helpful?"
Those guys suck. But the main characters in Knights of the Round are pretty cool. Arthur
has a tight control style and his block seems to be the easiest to use. Percival is just
plain awesome because he's not even that slow and his attacks are the most powerful in the
game. He even has a dash attack that no one else gets. Double tap forward then press 'Y,'
and he does this charge slash thingy with his axe. Needless to say, I play as Percival
a lot.
Lancelot is my least favorite. Some people like him but I don't. His walking speed is
just as slow as the other characters and his attacks do no damage. Even his jump attack,
which strikes twice, only dents the enemy's health bar. I don't need Lancelot and his
silly, luscious golden locks. Go back to the Desolation 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 look at. 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 games out there, so there's just an aura of specialness
to it. I also like how your character levels up through the game and gets cooler armor
and weapons. It's really linear since you can'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, I always came back for more punishment. The
co-op mode was pretty nice, since you could drop in at any moment during the gameplay.
And here's a rare treat Capcom gave us: when you lose a continue, you can start again mid-level,
even mid-combat as if you had just put in a 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 most challenging aspect. None of them are based
on Arthurian tradition to my knowledge. I've never 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 European folklore 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 high difficulty and infuriating bosses, the general
combat is fun enough to keep you coming back for more. It's a solid entry in the 90s era
of carefree, fun beat 'em ups.
Now, how does this game compare to King of Dragons, 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 move list, 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 review of 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 one because your characters are radically different
from each other and their moves change throughout the game. The wizard even gets a flame staff!
But in Knights of the Round, you just get a bigger, more colorful sword that plays the
same as the old one.
That's like waiting for Christmas as a kid and getting a re-painted version of your old
bike. Here, son, it's better now because it's blue! No, it still has that nasty, sagging
tire filled with sharp rocks, dad! You can't cover your blatant lies with Ace Hardware
paint!
Things to Make it Better:
-More advanced RPG elements that actually change 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 of 10, 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 would say 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 someone who has played both, leave a comment and tell
me which one you preferred.
Now, I'll answer a question I brought up earlier in the video. Is it worth the money? For what
I payed, yes. If you find this for under 50 dollars, don't hesitate to get it and enjoy
the simple, action-packed experience. But don't spend any more than that because there
are better beat 'em ups on the console like King of Dragons, TMNT 4, and arguably Super
Double Dragon.
Knights of the Round isn't the holy grail of gaming but it's a nice, simple fun one
that will keep you entertained. Thanks for watching this review, guys.
Before I sign off, I'm gonna give a shout out to some of the new friends I've been making
on Youtube. I'm not much of a social butterfly and 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 people and 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 meets searching for good deals on retro games. They've
only been around for a year but they've already kicked my *** and got three times my subscribers.
And they deserve them all.
Second, is Vintage Video Game Geek. I've been watching him for years. He does excellent
game reviews and his voice is hilarious. I can't describe it, it's just so articulate
and precise; you have to watch.
Third is Arcade Impossible, where Gregg Hansen works on expanding his basement arcade collection
every episode. He is such a chill guy and he has an amazing knowledge of arcade games.
I got a chance to play Joust with him at Portland and it was glorious.
Some more people I had a chance to talk with there were the illustrious ProJared, the amazing
Nintendo reviewer NESComplex, the benevolent Portlandian, the avid retro collector Scott
from Grimsie42, and Luigi Freakout123, a father-son duo who were so kind to get me a pass to the
event.
I know it's really late to talk about the expo, but you know me and my snail paced production
schedule. I wanted to wait until a full review to slip in this little plug. Anyway, thanks
so much for watching the review and I hope you're having an excellent December. Auf Wiedersehen.
And just to be extra soothing, good bye. I'll talk to you again sometime soon.