King's Knight (NES)
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King's Knight is a vertical shooting game developed by Bits Laboratory (as Workss) and published by Square and released in 1986, though it didn't arrive in North America until three years later. It was originally released on Japanese home computers such as the MSX and PC-8801 series. Though the game classifies itself as an RPG, it is merely a vertical shooter with a few RPG elements thrown in, and even then, not many. No storyline is given in the game, but the box simply explains that the adventurers are on a quest to save Princess Claire from an evil dragon.
King's Knight is divided into five stages, the first four being a level for each specific character. The first stage is Rayjack the Knight, the second stage is Kaliva the Wizard, the third level is Barusa the Monster, and the fourth level is Toby the Thief. The fifth and final level uses all surviving members.
In each level, the goal of the game is to collect certain items hidden around the map. You do this by shooting the environment, which in turn reveals hidden items. There are also underground passages that the player must traverse for more hidden items. If one of the characters dies during the stage, then the game simply moves on to the next character. If all characters are dead by the fourth or final stages, the game is over, and the player must start all the way back at the beginning.
The game was reviewed very negatively by critics. While some thought the idea of making a vertical shooter combined was an RPG was cool and innovative at the time, to say the execution was poor is only an understatement. While the player can hold the A button to rapid-fire, it is a lot faster to simply rapidly press the A button. Finding the hidden items required is also a pain, even with the use of an online map, especially because the game is an autoscroller, if you miss any items, you cannot go back and get it, and there's no way to restart the stage. On top of that, the final stage is the worst of them all; even if you get to the final stage, if any characters were lost and/or not all the required items were found on their respective stages, the final stage cannot be beaten, which means your hard work was all for naught. In addition, in the final stages, all the characters are bunched together, making them a huge target where it's impossible to avoid enemy fire. In addition, a certain character must be in the front ranks to use their spell. Rather than press the Select button or the like to switch characters, this can only be done by touching arrow icons throughout the stage.
Other problems during any part of the game included the health bar, that seems to deplete quickly within a couple-few hits. It doesn't help that there is no invincibility buffer after the player is hit. The up and down arrows found on the stages increase and decrease your health respectively, but only slightly. The other upgrades such as jumping, defense, and attack don't seem to have an effect until several of them are collected. There are also potholes that the player can get stuck in temporarily, which allows enemies to cover you with projectiles. There are also unbreakable walls that pop up in most stages, and if the player takes the wrong path, there is nothing they can do to prevent their character dying.
Contents
Screenshots
Music
The game features 9 songs by Nobuo Uematsu, Square's lead composer at the time. They fit with the medieval theme of the game, but due to the poor quality of the sound engine, they don't sound as good as they could be. The game's sound driver's frequency table was programmed to play the music a quarter step (microtone) sharp, which can make it sound out of tune.
Nobuo most likely wrote his compositions on sheet music and sent it to the developers.
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Programmer | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Press Start | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 0:05 | Download | |
| 02 | Overworld | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 5:56 | Download | |
| 03 | Underworld | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 1:27 | Download | |
| 04 | Stage Clear | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 0:06 | Download | |
| 05 | Help the Princess! | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 0:07 | Download | |
| 06 | Final Stage | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 0:33 | Download | |
| 07 | Final Boss | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 0:39 | Download | |
| 08 | Death | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 0:03 | Download | |
| 09 | Ending | Nobuo Uematsu | Yoshiaki Tsuruoka | 1:01 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: MrNorbert1994
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- Uncredited Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
- Uncredited Programmer: Yoshiaki Tsuruoka
(Verification from composer, other game credits; Game lacks credits.)
Nobuo has taken credit for composing the game's soundtrack. Oddly enough, this game doesn't have credits, something most Bits Laboratory titles did have. Since most Squaresoft games at the time didn't have credits, it's possible Squaresoft restricted the developers from putting their names in it, though the developer's name can be seen on the Japanese version's title screen. Yoshiaki Tsuruoka is credited in Ghostbusters for sound, and is credited in Magma Project Hacker (FDS) for music programming. Tadashi Sou, the other sound designer listed in Ghostbusters may have also helped work on this game's soundtrack arrangement, but Ghostbusters appears to be his only music credit, as he was usually attributed to graphic design. Additionally, Ghostbusters was developed and released around the same time as this game.
Audio Devices
The game uses the 2A03 of the NES for music and sound effects. The noise channel is never used for music, only sound effects. The game uses Yoshiaki Tsuruoka's sound driver, and uses the same variant used in Ghostbusters (NES).
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Links
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587386-kings-knight - GameFAQs.
- mobygames.com/game/18650/kings-knight/ - MobyGames.
- w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/2728.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).
