Gladiators

STORY / GAMEPLAY
After his parents were slaughtered by the Romans, Spartacus was transferred to Rome as a slave. This man was destined to become one of the most famous heroes of the Roman Era. While on this magnificent city he trained hard to fight in the bloody arenas spending many years to perfect his sword, spear and shield skills. And now, it is time to gain back his freedom but he must first beat the Emperor's finest gladiators and deadly eagles (!) and also kill anyone or anything that stands in his path through the streets of Rome. Then, he must overpower the guard at the gates and make his bid for freedom! Spartacus' quest is not a walk in the park, as between the levels there is a stage in which he has to avoid thrown arrows by either jumping over them or crouching or protecting himself with his shield.
Gladiators does not offer anything unique as a story or gameplay and it is a rather common fighting game with some nicely detailed, Roman-style backdrops.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Technically, the game is good, with backgrounds depicting Roman Era landscapes like arenas, city streets etc). The game's colors are fine (although limited to the Amiga's default 32-colors palette instead of using the extra tricks for 64 colors on screen) and the sprites are nicely animated. Compared to the Atari ST version, the ST offers the same visual quality but with half the colors (16).
The sound includes a nicely composed intro tune and a handful of high quality sampled sound effects during battles.