VIDEO: Someone finally remembers the game ‘WeaponLord’

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

Anyone else out there remember that insanely difficult fighting game with the really cheesy Heavy Metal art style from the 90s called WeaponLord?

Ever since Fighterpedia first hit the YouTubes, I’ve been patiently waiting for an episode based upon WeaponLord. And it would seem that someone up there has been listening. This time around, Woolie and Matt are a tad bit too amped up over the subject matter. But it’s somewhat possible to follow along. Somewhat…

So, does anyone remember playing this game as a kid? As explained in the clip, it was by far the most complicated (and convoluted) 2D fighting from back in the day. And to this day, it’s still damn near unplayable, unless you have Rain Man-esque skills when it comes to fighting games. Well, as also somewhat explained (okay, not really), the game was the brainchild of a high profile Street Fighter player that Namco decided to allow and design a game. His idea was basically what every fighting fanatic dreamt up back in the day, and many of its features, if not all, would eventually make their way across the board.

But even some things have yet to be replicated, like multiple endings per character (which in WeaponLord‘s case was contingent upon whom you killed in the game). Speaking of, it also innovated the idea of finishing moves before a round had even finished, something that would eventually be adopted by Guilty Gear. Which sucks in both cases equally. I especially moved how the game’s “mid-boss” was basically all the opponents from before that you didn’t kill. Which in my case was EVERYONE.

Of all the hardest fighting games out there, WeaponLord is ruler supreme. Aside from all the impossible (for a normal person) to remember special movies and strategies is how the game itself could not keep up with what was happening. Even back in the day people noted that, due to graphic limitations of the 16-bit home console hardware, the animation was not as smooth and lush as it needed to be to know exactly what part of a character’s animation cycle to initiate a certain sequence.

Hence why the inferior looking and sounding Genesis version is still preferred, cuz at least that one moves a bit faster than the SNES edition. All of which, to be honest, is something Fighterpedia should be covering. But then again, none of which is necessarily entertaining, hence why they’re making videos and I’m not! So moving on…

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