Kick Master

Kick Master
Cover art (Thonolan, Belzed, and Silphee)
Developer(s) KID
Publisher(s) Taito
Director(s) Hisayoshi Ichikawa
Motoyuki Inoue
Producer(s) Ken Lobb
Programmer(s) Shinobu Yagawa
Artist(s) Kazuhiro Iizuka
Tsutomu Ozawa
Composer(s) Nobuyuki Shioda
Yusuke Takahama
Platform(s) NES
Release
  • NA: January 1992
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s) Single-player

Kick Master (also known as KickMaster) is an action game developed by KID and published by Taito Corporation for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. The game has some role-playing game elements, such as leveling up, and is also one of the first NES games to feature parallax scrolling.

Gameplay

Kick Master resembles early games in the Castlevania series.[1][2] Enemies are fought using martial arts kicks and magic spells. Defeated enemies drop three items that will either help or hurt the player character Thonolan. When Thonolan gains a level, his maximum MP is increased and new moves are learned. There are a total of 8 destinations that Thanolan must bravely journey through before confronting and defeating Belzed.

  • Sector 1: Witches' Forest

A small forest that exists just outside of the Castle Lowel. The skeletal forces that attacked the kingdom came from this area, and are likely led by another mysterious witch, who is serving under Belzed.

  • Sector 2: Caverns Of No Return
  • Sector 3: Belzed's First Stronghold

A stronghold that was once used by Belzed, but is now abandoned. Left in her stead as a guardian is the Lightning-Wielding Gargoyle.

  • Sector 4: Bottomless Crevasse

Beyond the stronghold is a series of crevasses along a mountainside. A Fire-Breathing Chimerae, seeking to end Thonolan's quest awaits him here.

  • Sector 5: Aboard The Ship Of Strife
  • Sector 6: Across The Swamps
  • Sector 7: Long Way From Home

What appears to be a dungeon of sorts within Belzed's castle. Not being satisfied with the all of the destruction that she has caused, Belzed even used magic to create evil doppelgangers of both Thanolan and his brother - which lurk about this dungeon.

  • Sector 8: Belzed's Haunted Tower

9

Plot

The castle of Lowrel is attacked and burned by the monsters and magic of the powerful evil witch Belzed (curiously, Western sources such as Nintendo Power described Belzed as a male wizard[3]). In the attack, the King and the Queen are slain and their only child, Princess Silphee, is kidnapped. The king's guards were all killed, except for the knight Macren. He and his younger brother, Thonolan, an aspiring martial artist, take off on a long journey to free the princess. As the fight against Belzed's minions commences, Macren is mortally wounded by a skeleton. With his dying breath, he pleads his brother to use his "great kicking skills" to avenge him.

If the player manages to complete the game, the wicked Belzed is destroyed and Thonolan rescues the princess Silphee. He then torches down the witch's tower and disappears, never to be heard from again. The player is then given an opportunity to try to beat the game again on a higher difficulty level. There are a total of three difficulty levels in this game. Once the third difficulty level is complete, the credits will roll.

Reception

Video game magazines, such as GamePro,[4] gave Kick Master positive reviews upon the release.

References

  1. ↑ Mateusz Gołębiowski. "Retro - Kick Master - Felieton". Gry.wp.pl. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  2. ↑ "Retronauts: 1UP's Classic Gaming Blog : Giving Evil the Boot with Kickmaster". 1up.com. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  3. ↑ "Nintendo Power Issue 028 September 1991". Archive.org. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  4. ↑ "GamePro Issue 031 February 1992". Archive.org. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
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