Nintendo Wii Game Reviews: King's Knight Review

King’s Knight was released on the NES back in 1989 and it was one of Square’s first releases as an independent company. Really, they should just stick to what they’re good at, and Nintendo shouldn’t release a game like this just because of the company involved. You can download it onto your Wii, I just don’t know why you’d want to.

Story (3 out of 5)

King’s Knight has the classic RPG story (but it’s not an RPG!). A group of four heroes come together to save a kidnapped princess. They are Ray Jack the Knight (I kid you not. His name is Ray Jack!), Kaliva the Wizard (Gandalf, anyone?), Barusa the Monster, and Toby the Kid Thief. By shooting their way across five stages and defeating some dragons they should be able to rescue her royal highness. Hey, at least they don’t have to destroy a magic ring.

Gameplay (2 out of 5)

King’s Knight is not an RPG. It’s a scrolling shooter, but instead of space it is set in a fantasy world. Sound cool? It’s not.

Every stage must be completed by one of the four heroes. The player is forced to move forward, avoid enemy fire (which there is a lot of), shoot through obstacles (which there is also a lot of), collect power ups and not die (nearly impossible!). If you lose the level as one character you will automatically began the next level as the next character in line. Once all characters have been defeated, you must start the whole thing over again.

Rescuing this princess is not all fun and games (pun intended). The difficulty curve is steep, making King’s Knight very annoying. While I can appreciate a challenge, this is ridiculous! There are so many enemies that it makes dodging their fire almost impossible. Plus, the main characters start off so weak it is hard to even power them up enough to beat anyone.

The Wiimote is the classic controller, as always. The D-pad controls movement while the 1 and 2 buttons fire magic (or whatever it is they are shooting). You collect level ups by shooting enemies and obstacles. There are even caves hidden in every level that have a special power up for that character. If you can find it (by shooting, of course) you’ll have to avoid the fire breathing statues and defeat the dragon to get out alive.

Once all four stages are complete there is a final fifth stage in which all the heroes work together. Although, considering how difficult this game is I don’t know how many people will actually reach it. That part is slightly more bearable than the rest of the game, but only just.

Graphics and Sound (3 out of 5)

King’s Knight is such an early NES release that there is nothing impressive about its graphics at all. Similar in nature to the original Final Fantasy, everything is drab and blocky. The only cute thing is the monster. He’s adorable.

Sound-wise King’s Knight is actually okay. The music, while not being grand, is a nice touch to an otherwise bad experience. It has a certain flare to it that encompasses epic storytelling which the game itself does not possess.

Fun (1 out of 5)

Why would you have fun getting killed over and over and over again? I didn’t. While the Square label might excite you, do not be misled. This is a lame attempt from them to milk their old games for all the money they are worth. This game should have stayed in the vault as there is so little entertainment value to be had by it.

Overall (2 out of 5)

500 Wii points is way too many for this lame excuse of a game. If you want a good RPG for your Wii VC, get Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the SNES. Hopefully, Square will release something cool for the VC, but King’s Knight is not it.