KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND
Original Release: Capcom, 1991, Arcade
Other Releases: SNES (1994), Switch (in Capcom Belt Action Collection, 2021)
One of the first medieval-themed swordy brawlers into the arcade scene, and sporting light RPG upgrade elements to boot
Knights of the Round (Arcade, Capcom, 1991)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Knights of the Round recycles elements from so many other games I can't even keep track of whether those games came before it, or it before them. Most of them are Capcom's own titles anyway, so from a legal perspective I guess it really doesn't matter.
Of course, they owe Golden Axe a little something for the whole "fantasy brawler" concept and the mounts (horses here instead of creepy mutant chickens), but most of the game is really a mishmosh of Magic Sword, Warriors of Fate, those two brawlers based on Destiny of an Emperor whose names I've forgotten, the Dungeons and Dragons brawlers, and of course the Final Fight template which spawned so many of these damned games.
Don't expect L'Morte D'Arthur in arcade form. You have your choice of Lancelot (speedy but packs little punch), Arthur (supposed to be the middle ground but ends up being slow and kind of weak), and Percival (big and slow and can't really jump-attack), this is true. Don't expect to see anything else of the Arthurian legends, however; the rich characters and world are eschewed in favor of plowing through waves of samey knight enemies for no purpose other than that they happen to be there. They even manage to work in a ghost samurai in the next to last level, for cripes sake.
It's well made enough, and the art is downright nice at times, but it suffers from the inherent weakness of the Beat-Em-Up, particularly the Capcom Beat-Em-Up; we've done all this before many, many times and after a couple of levels you get tired of just button-mashing away at the same enemies over and over and over and over again. There's a "level up" system that just bizarrely seems to add pieces of armor to your knight without actually increasing their strength or abilities at all. At the very least, this game led to the far superior Dungeons & Dragons arcade games ... well, you should probably play those instead.
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