Moonstone

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Time: Somewhere in the Medieval Era. You play the role of a brave knight who must search the surrounding lands for the lost, powerful Moonstones and bring them back to the Druids. In return, the Druids will grant you with eternal power...! But be warned! You are not alone in this quest, as 3 other knights are also looking for the stones and will surely set to kill you! You must be the first to find each clue that leads to the location of the Moonstones and find magic artifacts that will help you in your adventure. As you explore the mystical lands you will discover several places of interest, such as towns (where you can buy healing potions, weapon upgrades or you can even participate in gamble spots for gold...and more), wizard towers (that may contain either rewards or penalties!) and monster lairs! The lairs are very important in order to grab a few coins and be able to spend them for weapon upgrades or magic skills. But, to get those coins you must defeat all monsters met in each lair and this is tough, believe me. Many of the monsters have a distinctive fighting style so, learning the techniques to defeat them is essential! A fair range of necessary fighting moves is at your disposal. Some monsters are stronger than others and some creatures' strengths depend on the phases of Moon!!! Any attack unleashed is always gory and blood will spray all over your screen! Every time you end up victorious, your knight's abilities and points will be updated. If they kill you, you will lose a life. Apart from the monsters and your three main rival Knights, there are a few more dangers to cope with. Black Knights roam the areas, aiming to ambush you; powerful warriors lurk at key locations to hack you in pieces! Also, a Dragon is flying across the whole land and if it spots you then...you're history! So, beware! To move around the land, you use a map that depicts all available areas. Note that your movement on the map is limited to just a few pixels-a-time so you cannot reach directly an area of interest. This means that probably another knight might reach it first! One of the best assets of the game is the four-players mode with each player choosing a knight and follow the same story. This way the game can turn into a one-on-one brawl at any time! The Knight that finds first the Moonstones, is the great winner!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game's graphics are a really strong point. Each area is nicely designed without the need of any fancy animated backdrops but the aesthetic brilliance of the sprite animations makes you wanting to fight again and again! Getting stomped to death, your body's pieces splash all over a monster's lair; you can be hung to suffocation by rat-like rodents; an enemy knight can easily cut your head off; a Balok can bite you hard;...and tons more of gory animations are awaiting in this game! The sound is as gory as the graphics offering a variety of sampled sound effects that also include the sound of your splashing blood! There is also a nice medieval-style tune along with the great, dark and amazing introduction of the Moonstone story. Moonstone is an Amiga OCS masterpiece and you should absolutely try it!