Game #972: Barbarian

  Where are their manners?!

 I'm not usually a fan of unconventional fighters, particularly arena-based fighters, but there's something about Barbarian, a certain je ne se quois that made it unconventionally appealing.

 The game is a bit scant on content, 10 fighters with an alternate costume each, usually more than just a simple recolor, Quest mode, a Practice and a Tutorial mode and a Versus mode. On the flip side, Quest Mode is rather interesting. While there are no cutscenes, each character has their own story, and every battle is prefaced with a text narration, and you can even take alternate paths. As you advance through the game you level up and you can put points into your stats or even into skills such as a double jump or increasing your strength when low on health. The maximum level is 10, so it's not super in depth, but you can then use your custom characters in Versus mode if you so wish it. The overall presentation of Quest Mode is a bit lacking, no in-game dialogue, no cutscenes, no nothing, but at least they went the extra mile with the narration, I'll give them that.

 The gameplay is fairly simple. Square and Triangle are weak and strong attacks that can be linked together to perform different combos, and each combo has a different effect: Pushback, restore mana, land damage even if blocked, etc. As previously stated, it's an arena based fighter, so you can move around and grab objects to hit enemies with. Heck, you can even pick up enemies and use their bodies as a weapon! You can block and counter attacks, and you have a mana gauge with which to cast spells. Every character has an R1 projectile and a pushback spell, but doing certain actions(Throwing, landing a combo, countering, hitting with an object) gives you runes that allow you to cast special magical attacks... or buffs. Fights can happen with up to four different battlers, and the framerate holds up surprisingly well, although on some stages, like the Swamp stage, it can take a hit or two.

 Barbarian doesn't really stand out from the heap but it's certainly fun for a bit. It plays relatively well and the Quest mode is more involved than what you'd expect. What the game lacks is some kind of spark, something that could've made it stand out, some kind of gimmick. But alas, what there is is good enough I'd say.

 6.0