Kickmaster

 Today we will be talking about Kickmaster, a martial arts/fantasy RPG for the NES.

History

Kickmaster was developed by Japanese company KID, and released by the Taito corporation. The directing team of the project included Hisayoshi Ichikawa and Motoyuki Inoue. Its was produced by Ken Lobb, and programmed by Shinobu Yagawa. The soundtrack was composed by Noboyuki Lizuko and Tsutomo Ozawa. The game was originally released in 1992.

Gameplay

Kickmaster resembles the early castlevania games, with a simple sidescrolling monster fighting gameplay. Your character, Thonolan, has to defeat monsters with martial arts and spells, and face of with a boss at the end of each stage. You face of with monsters like skeletons, flying grim reaper things, and frogs for some reason? At the end of each stage you face some kind of boss, usually a wizard or some kind of monster.

Plot

The castle of Lowrel is attacked and burned by the evil witch Belzed. The king and queen are slain, and their living daughter is kidnapped. The younger brother of one of the royal guards goes off on a journey to save the princess. This character is Thonolan, the character you play as. There are a total of 8 locations to brave before you can save the princess. 

• Witch's Forest
• Caverns of No Return
• Belzed's First Stronghold
• Bottomless Crevasse
• Across the Swamps
• Long Way From Home
• Belzed's Haunted Tower

After you have completed the final level, you torch down Belzed's tower. Then, you are given the option to complete the game again, only on a higher difficulty. There are 3 total difficulties, and the credits only roll after you beat the hardest one.

Review

I really like Kickmaster. The bosses are really hard, and the skeletons, which are the basic monster, are surprisingly hard to kill. Overall, it's a really fun game with basic mechanics and not a lot to keep track of.★★★★