Wizards & Warriors (1987)

Wizards & Warriors is a platform video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was published by Acclaim and released in North America in December 1987, and in Europe on January 7, 1990. In the game, the player controls Kuros, "Knight Warrior of the Books of Excalibur", as he sets out in the Kingdom of Elrond to defeat the evil wizard Malkil. Malkil holds the princess of Elrond captive in Castle IronSpire, deep within the forests of Elrond. The player fights through forests, tunnels, and caves, while also collecting keys, treasure, weapons, and magic items.

Wizards & Warriors was the second game Rare released for the NES, after the skiing simulator Slalom (1987). In the months surrounding its North American and European releases, Wizards & Warriors was featured in a number of video game magazines, including Nintendo Fun Club News, Nintendo Power, and VideoGames & Computer Entertainment. The game was praised for its graphics, sound, difficulty, and arcade-style gameplay. In 2010, Retro Gamer called Wizards & Warriors "a unique experience for NES gamers in 1987" that was "technically well ahead of other games for the console at the time", but attributed the game's relatively low difficulty to allowing unlimited continues without penalty. Wizards & Warriors was followed by three sequels: Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (1989), Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear (1990), and Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power (1992).