Krull

Krull
Most people probably don't remember the movie and from what I can remember, it is probably a better thing. But most classic collectors are familiar with the game, mainly the Atari 2600 version. But before it became a cart, it was an arcade game first. Krull was like many of the next generation of arcade games. Unlike the Pacmans and Space Invaders of the earlier generation, Krull featured multiple games in one. It wasn't the same board over and over again.

The game starts off with a bit of a chase! You must run around and pick up the pieces of your Glaive weapon. As you are doing this, a whole bunch of boulders are rolling down at you, trying to flatten your poor body. While it can be a bit overwhelming at first, you will soon find that this level is quite easy. A little patience will reward you as paths to the pieces will soon open up. But as soon as you finish, it is off to a harder challenge.

The next challenge will tax you a little more. This time you are out to save your men from the evil Slayers. This level plays alot like Robotron with a mix or Discs of Tron. Like Robotron, you must save the people who are running around. As you try to save them, you have to kill all the slayers on the level. But like Discs of Tron, you can only throw so many weapons at once, before you have to wait for them to return. So it is a good idea not to toss them all at once or you may find yourself weaponless and that is not a good thing.

The third stage once more has you saving your men. I personally think these guys are useless and you should just leave them to fend for themselves. But the game insists that you save them and so off you go. Once again the Slayers are out in force and you must move around a cave and grab these pathetic men. Get them all and you get to move on.

On the fourth stage, you have to shoot down the walls of a fortress to guess what......save your men again. They really should change the name of this game from "Krull" to "Save Your Pathetic Army". This level is pretty easy as you just have to wait for the wall to turn black and shoot it. Sure some of the Slayers come to stop you, but they are just a minor annoyance on this level.

But when you come to the last level, you must face the big boss monster. Where is this army you just saved? Nowhere to be seen. You spend the majority of the game, saving their hides and what do they do? All head to the bar for Miller time as you are left to save the princess. Be wary as the monster shoots a very accurate fireball and if it misses you, it will turn around and head back at you. That is right, a ricocheting fireball! What will they think of next? Anyways, save your sweetie and you win the game. Actually I am guessing this last part as I cannot get past the big bruiser. I know I did in my youth, but like all that Latin I took, it is long forgotten how it ends. But any battle beyond this would seem pretty anticlimactic. Maybe you get to go and berate your troops or something, but this is probably just wishful thinking.

All in all, the game is pretty fun. Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but a fun little diversion. Maybe I will go rent the movie and see if it is accurate. Wonder if any store still has it?

This is just a review of the arcade machine.  If you are looking for the actual arcade machine, you may want to check out ebay.  Click below to see if you can find this game.