ACA NEOGEO Crossed Swords

Genre: Arcade / Action

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Crossed Swords is an Arcade-style Action game released in 1991 in arcades and on the NEOGEO home console. This modern release sees the game coming to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2018 with a port to PlayStation 4 in 2019. This game puts players in the role of a hero in a medieval fantasy setting fighting through hordes of monsters to save the kingdom.

Interestingly, while you’re swinging a sword, blocking with a shield, and using magic, the gameplay in this game feels faintly reminiscent of the Punch-Out!! franchise, and these are dots that have been connected before, in the excellent WiiWare and Nintendo 3DS game Rage of the Gladiator, which was inspired by Crossed Swords.

However, be warned that even if you’re a fan of the Punch-Out games, you may not be prepared for the difficulty level here, as the tells enemies give of their impending attacks are much quicker, and you’ll need to be lightning fast to not only block in time, but block in the appropriate direction (thankfully you only need to worry about blocking up or down).

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to score as much as they can in one run before seeing a game over screen. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game includes both English and Japanese versions, and gives players a decent array of options, including various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

Overall, I liked Crossed Swords, and I think it’s approach to this style of gameplay is inspired, and well worth the game’s $8 asking price. The only thing that makes me hesitate here is the game’s challenge level – this is absolutely not going to be for everyone, and I expect that most players will die countless times because of the high difficulty. Still, if you don’t buckle at a challenge, I think you’ll find this game to be worth a look.

tl;dr – Crossed Swords is an Arcade-style Action game that has players using a sword and shield to fight enemies with gameplay vaguely similar to the Punch-Out!! franchise. It’s a unique approach, and it’s done well here, but this game’s challenge level is still exceptionally high in a way that may put off most players. If that doesn’t make you wary, I’d say this game is well worth a look.

Grade: B-

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