Barbarian II

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The game is a flip-screen action adventure game with hack and slash elements. You choose between a male Barbarian (featured on the first game) who uses a Battle-Axe or a female character who wields a Long Sword. You travel through four different places to find Drax and finish his plans once and for all. On each of the first three levels you must fight six different types of monsters who are willing to kill you faster than you think! Those monsters can be from little angry chickens to heavily powered giants using their...bat! During your quest you can also gain more lives (initially 5) by collecting any skulls you may find. A truly interesting arcade adventure game (rather than a fighting game as its predecessor) which will offer you plenty of gameplay time! You start from a volcanic land and you go through a cave complex, a dungeon and finally three levels in which you encounter 2 monsters guarding Drax, ending up in a final fight with him.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The CPC version is an excellent work in terms of graphics, scrolling and gameplay. The visuals are colorful, offering great details (check both the outdoor and indoor screens) and the character animation is really cool. Note that the CPC+ version looks like a direct port from the CPC, thus there is no difference them at all. In general, all six 8bit versions look great, but specifically the CPC\CPC+ and the C64 versions are quite better due to their better default color palette. The CPC version also features wonderful (and fun) sound effects, much like its C64 counterpart.