Intro I've never played Warlock before, in fact, I've never even heard of it before in my life before I seeing at this site. Naturally, the name Warlock gave me feelings that this game would be an incredible magical adventure. Well, I was wrong, so very wrong, and I am going to tell just why I was wrong.
StoryHonestly, there isn't much of story talk about here. The gist of it is that you are some sort of sorcerer that is collecting six magical stones in order some evil sorcerer. That is literally what the entire story is, which may be alright for some people, but not me. In my eyes if you do something in the fantasy you should put a little my depth in the story. I mean there are these storybook bits that tell you are going, but these bits do only just that: tell you where you're going. They don't convey any more information about the evil sorcerer, or even yourself. And I can’t say that the graphics are much better.
GraphicsWhile I found the sprites to be fairly detailed and fairly animated I couldn't help notice the repeated use of sprite sheets across every level. Seriously, there are levels in the game that have the same sprites as another level with only a slight deviation. The level design lacks any great variety, which is rather disappointing since Dracula X (released the same year as this) has greater variety in its level design. It just makes me think that the artists got lazy when doing level design. But, compared to some games released in same time frame, Warlock is somewhat better looking that suffers from a lack of variety in its level art. Unfortunately the sound fares worse than the graphics.
Sound
Now I won’t say that the sound effects is this game is bad because they’re not, they’re actually kind of nice for the Super Nintendo. Even the music has a nice organic theme to it. However, the huge issue with the sound is that the levels have the same music track. So you’ll be listening to the same old organ music over and over again throughout the entire game. However, the gameplay fares worse.
Gameplay
Warlock is a platformer of sorts, however, just like is the Prince (of Persia), your character's movement are rather clunky. Now, the goal of which is to collect six stones by going through a variety (and I use the term loosely) of stages. The whole game is a straight line with no deviation from your goal; no worthwhile secrets to uncover. Your character can also shoot magic bolts as their main attack, and use an orb that can be used as an attack enemies or grab items. However, do not count on the orb for anything much than grabbing spells. This in due to the fact that you have to first “charge” the orb in order to launch, but most enemies move faster than the orb. Now, the spells are fairly unoriginal; they’re the typical small heal, large heal, and smart bomb that one would akin to beat ‘em ups. The only exception to this is the rare crystal, which protects the wizard whilst dealing damage. There also this rather worthless time reversal spell that sends you back to a certain point in the level. But Honestly though, there isn’t any special about this game, but what’s worse is that Warlock is boring. There exceptions to the rule that a game has to be special to be fun, but Warlock is definitely not one of them.
Conclusion
Warlock is an outright boring game. With a poor story, a monotonous soundtrack, and sluggish gameplay making up the boredom of this game. Of course, I can’t be surprised that Warlock is such a mediocre game since it’s loosely based off the movie from 1989 of the same name. With that fact known and that this game is bad only cements my view that movie licensed games are terrible. Intro I've never played Warlock before, in fact, I've never even heard of it before in my life before I seeing at this site. Naturally, the name Warlock gave me feelings that this game would be an incredible magical adventure. Well, I was wrong, so very wrong, and I am going to tell just why I was wrong.
Story
Honestly, there isn't much of story talk about here. The gist of it is that you are some sort of sorcerer that is collecting six magical stones in order some evil sorcerer. That is literally what the entire story is, which may be alright for some people, but not me. In my eyes if you do something in the fantasy you should put a little my depth in the story. I mean there are these storybook bits that tell you are going, but these bits do only just that: tell you where you're going. They don't convey any more information about the evil sorcerer, or even yourself. And I can’t say that the graphics are much better.
GraphicsWhile I found the sprites to be fairly detailed and fairly animated I couldn't help notice the repeated use of sprite sheets across every level. Seriously, there are levels in the game that have the same sprites as another level with only a slight deviation. The level design lacks any great variety, which is rather disappointing since Dracula X (released the same year as this) has greater variety in its level design. It just makes me think that the artists got lazy when doing level design. But, compared to some games released in same time frame, Warlock is somewhat better looking that suffers from a lack of variety in its level art. Unfortunately the sound fares worse than the graphics.
Sound
Now I won’t say that the sound effects is this game is bad because they’re not, they’re actually kind of nice for the Super Nintendo. Even the music has a nice organic theme to it. However, the huge issue with the sound is that the levels have the same music track. So you’ll be listening to the same old organ music over and over again throughout the entire game. However, the gameplay fares worse.
Gameplay
Warlock is a platformer of sorts, however, just like is the Prince (of Persia), your character's movement are rather clunky. Now, the goal of which is to collect six stones by going through a variety (and I use the term loosely) of stages. The whole game is a straight line with no deviation from your goal; no worthwhile secrets to uncover. Your character can also shoot magic bolts as their main attack, and use an orb that can be used as an attack enemies or grab items. However, do not count on the orb for anything much than grabbing spells. This in due to the fact that you have to first “charge” the orb in order to launch, but most enemies move faster than the orb. Now, the spells are fairly unoriginal; they’re the typical small heal, large heal, and smart bomb that one would akin to beat ‘em ups. The only exception to this is the rare crystal, which protects the wizard whilst dealing damage. There also this rather worthless time reversal spell that sends you back to a certain point in the level. But Honestly though, there isn’t any special about this game, but what’s worse is that Warlock is boring. There exceptions to the rule that a game has to be special to be fun, but Warlock is definitely not one of them.
Conclusion
Warlock is an outright boring game. With a poor story, a monotonous soundtrack, and sluggish gameplay making up the boredom of this game. Of course, I can’t be surprised that Warlock is such a mediocre game since it’s loosely based off the movie from 1989 of the same name. With that fact known and that this game is bad only cements my view that movie licensed games are terrible. |
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