Legend (SNES) Playthrough

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Published on September 2, 2023 5:59:54 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn4nZXCuPGw

Game:

Legend (1994)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:27:16

4,970 views

227

A playthrough of Seika's 1994 beat 'em up for the Super Nintendo, Legend.

Have you ever come away from a game thinking, "Wow, that was total trash," only to be shocked when you later found out that it reviewed decently well and that some people actually seemed to enjoy it? For me, Legend was one of those games.

Legend is a traditional arcade-style, Conan-themed beat 'em up that was created in less than three months by a couple of French guys, Carlo Perconti and Lyes Belaidouni, working under the name Arcade Zone.

The pair cited Capcom's The King of Dragons and Sega's Golden Axe as their primary influences, and their love of those games can clearly be seen throughout Legend.

You play as Kaor (is that pronounced "core" or "cower"?) and Igor - both of whom come across as Mike Haggar cosplaying Arnold Schwarzenegger - as you hack and slash through droves of palette-swapped orcs, skeletons, and wizards over the course of six memorable stages, including such highlights as "dirt road through a forest," "dank cave," "dirt road through a forest at night," "dimly lit stone corridor," and my personal favorite, "dirt road through a forest, but now the trees are red." For the in-game aural accompaniment, you get the typical assortment of screams, clangs, and thuds backed by a selection of (virtually identical sounding) tracks that strive for that "days of high adventure" feeling.

The presentation is much better than you might expect from a game that was made by just two people. It's technically sound - the game runs at a smooth framerate and constantly throws around large sprites and transparency effects with nary a hiccup - and the art showcases some real talent.

But as competent as the work is, Legend is an incredibly dull game to look at. The character and enemy designs have none of the personable spark that made Golden Axe's sprites so memorable and appealing, and the backgrounds lack the detail flourishes and the vibrant colors that gave the The King of Dragons' SNES port its visual punch.

The gameplay, however, feels somewhat less than competent. The nuts and bolts are fine - the controls work and the game doesn't crash - but the action feels sloppy and it's completely devoid of substance. Hits come out too slowly to form proper combos, there are no grapples or throws, the block is only useful a few times throughout the entire game, and since the enemies constantly sprint around trying to box you in, the floaty jump kick ends up being your only reliable means to avoid being punched in the back of the head every two seconds. Even then, jump kicking only works when you can see what's going on. The game regularly obscures your view of the action with the giant pillars and walls that scroll by in the foreground layer - argh! And you might as well give up if you reach a boss without a stockpile of reserve lives to burn. The last few bosses in particular love cheesing you to death with their questionable hitboxes and unblockable attacks, and since the window of opportunity you're given for a clean hit disappears in a blink, you'll need those extra lives in order to spam the special attack.

Legend looks like a 16-bit arcade brawler, but the monotonous action lacks the variety and depth that you'd expect to see even in a run-of-the-mill NES beat 'em up from the mid/late 80s. Next to Renegade or Double Dragon, it just feels hollow. It's an impressive effort for such a small team, but that sentiment means little when you're talking about a game that sold for $59.99 at retail.

I honestly don't see the appeal. I suppose I might've enjoyed it had I received it as a gift in the mid 90s, but I doubt it would've held up any better against Final Fight, Rival Turf, or Super Double Dragon back then than it does now, and calling it a Golden Axe clone would be giving it way too much credit.

But what confuzzles me most has to be the ratings Nintendo Power gave it in their March '94 issue. You guys remember their system, right? They rated each game in four categories (graphics and sound, controls, challenge, and fun factor) on a five-point scale.

Legend scored a 3.6, 3.4, 3.3, and a 3.3, respectively. Now, for the sake of context, let's take a look at how a few other SNES games were rated in that same issue:

The Peacekeepers: 3.2, 3.2, 3.0, 3.0
Undercover Cops: 3.5, 3.4, 2.7, 2.7
R-Type III: 3.8, 4.0, 3.4, 3.1
Lethal Enforcers: 3.4, 3.6, 2.8, 2.7
Wheel of Fortune Deluxe Edition: 3.0, 3.7, 3.0, 3.8

See what I'm getting at here?

Was the NP staff smoking something? Did Legend deserve higher scores than the first four games on that list? Is Wheel of Fortune more fun than Lethal Enforcers while being only slightly less challenging than R-Type? Did I take the wrong color pill? Help!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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