Game of the Day - Magic Sword

Magic Sword is a platform/fighting/scrolling/Ghosts N Goblins type game that gives you everything you expect.

You are a tricked-out warrior who fights his way through a large castle packed with 50 floors of fighting and jumping goodness.

The graphics are very nice.  Detailed backgrounds and enemies abound.  Ghosts, mummies, gryphons, dragons, bears, skeletons, etc. flood the castle and are some of the nicest looking you'll see in a game from this era and this style.  Level design is interesting though not overly complex.

You start with a combo sword/ranged weapon.  When you push the attack button, the ranged version of the weapon fires (reaches out) and the sword slashes.  There is a magic/power gauge that take a second or two to fill back up after you have fired.  If you strike again before it has refilled, you will just be attacking with your sword.  But if you wait a second until the meter fills back up (and flashes red), you will then be able to make another longer range attack.  This holds true as you power up your weapons throughout the game.  There are TONS of things to find.  Power-ups, health related items, keys, sidekicks, etc.  Food increases your health, many different power-ups make your weaponry more...well... powerful.  Bigger, stronger, faster.  The keys you find are key to the game (pun intended).  You will get bonuses after certain levels for having them, but more importantly, using them to unlock doors and cells will release all kinds of folks.  Some are enemies, but most are sidekicks.  There are at least 8 different kinds of sidekicks you can spring from the hoosegow and they then fight along side you, mimicking your moves with weapons of their own.

A couple of other things to mention...  There are two buttons in play, fire and jump.  Jump will come in handy lots as you fight and climb the tower.  Pushing both buttons at once launches some sort of magical-uber attack.  Also, while there are 50 levels to plow thru, there are many places that have (not so) secret doors that are a shortcut to the next level.

It's good old-fashioned dungeon-crawling fun in the spirit of GnG.  Nice graphics and well balanced gameplay.