Mace: The Dark Age

Mace: The Dark Age is a fighting video game released by Atari for arcade machines in 1997^[1] and ported by Midway to the Nintendo 64 in 1997.

Plot

"For centuries an impenetrable darkness has shrouded Europe, Arabia and Asia, with countless victims succumbing to the ravenous hunger of unchecked pestilence and war. In Asia, Khan's ruthless Golden Horde wages a war of terror from the shores of Japan to Europe. In Arabia, the legendary Assassins' Guild asserts a bid for power, toppling sultans and kings. Europe, once a promising glimpse of humanity's potential, has become a well of despair under the despotic rule of a handful of feudal lords.

"Many great kingdoms have been devastated, but a few have grown more powerful. These comprise the Covenant of Seven - lords who have allied with Asmodeus, a practitioner of the dark arts who wields the fabled Mace of Tanis. The Mace is imbued with necropotic energy, offering those who wield it a tantalizing promise of ever-lasting life and unbridled power. With this power comes a terrible price: Asmodeus must feed off despair, disease, and poverty. In limited doses, Asmodeus grants the Seven the power they need and crave. In return, they expand their kingdoms with bloody battles and torment their peasants. But Europe can no longer sustain Asmodeus' ravenous appetite. He now reaches East into the Orient, to find new lords who yearn to sample the dark powers.

"But there is rebellion. Each of the Seven, addicted to the corrupting power of the Mace, dispatch their best warriors to kill Asmodeus and steal his power. Leaders from the East sense Asmodeus' plottings and strive to destroy him before it is too late. Heirs to kingdoms long since vanquished seek revenge on Asmodeus and those who wield the dark energy. They are the fiercest fighters in the world, and they all have one thing in common: they each must possess the Mace."^[2]

Gameplay

The game is similar to Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. and the Mortal Kombat series. Like in Mortal Kombat, when a character wins both rounds, they can perform an execution move on the enemy. Methods included severing an opponent's limbs and torso (Al Rashid), beheading (The Executioner), repeated stabbing (Koyasha), impaling the opponent with a sword (Lord Deimos), breaking an opponent's back by hoisting them on top of a Viking helmet and throwing them to the ground, causing their body to explode (Ragnar), and some more far-fetched methods including pulling out an opponent's heart (Xiao Long), shrinking (Namira), transforming the opponent into a chicken (Taria), and entering an opponent's body and bursting them from inside (Dregan).

Characters

• Al' Rashid: The master assassin of the Desert Wind, hired by one of the Seven to bring back the Mace of Tanis. He is armed with twin scimitars, said to be forged by the very desert wind itself.
• Mordos Kull: A legendary mercenary who spent his orphaned youth thinking of revenge against the Seven for killing his family. He is armed with a flail and shield.
• Koyasha: A young female ninja seeking to kill Asmodeus and test her skills as a master of the art of ninjutsu. She is armed with two straight knives.
• Lord Deimos: Hundreds of years old, Deimos rules his people with an iron fist. A member of the Covenant of Seven, he seeks to usurp power to expand his kingdom. He is armed with a large, two-handed Flamberge sword with a fiery blade.
• Namira: The lost princess of Tulwara turned vengeful harem girl, Namira mastered the deadly art of scimitar fighting from a court eunuch. She is armed with a single scimitar.
• Ragnar Bloodaxe: The Viking Prince of Torsgard, his village was destroyed by the power-hungry Deimos. He seeks revenge and hopes the Mace can restore his beloved land. He is armed with two single-handled axes, one in each hand.
• Takeshi Tsunami: A noble samurai and son of the Japanese emperor, Takeshi has been trusted to prevent the evil power of the Seven from spreading to Japan. He also seeks his lost brother Ichiro. He is armed with a long sword.
• Taria de Castillo: An evil sorceress and the daughter of one of the Covenant of Seven. She aspires to become a demoness and conquer hell itself. She is armed with a straight sword in one hand and a dagger in the other.
• The Executioner: A freelance torturer who seeks the ultimate power for himself, and a new weapon to inflict pain with. He is armed with a large executioner's axe. His "Axe Hook" attack was nominated to The Golden Bondage Award in Nintendo Power Awards '97.^[3]
• Xiao Long: Disowned and blinded by his father, Xiao was raised by monks and taught to master the Spirit Sense. He vows to destroy evil in all forms, beginning with the Mace. He is armed with a bo staff.

Secret characters:

• Asmodeus: Only playable through a cheat cartridge. He is the final boss which other characters must defeat, in order to claim the Mace of Tanis.
• Grendal: A tormented soul trapped in the body of an obsidian gargoyle, Grendal is forced to do the bidding of Asmodeus. He is the twin brother of Taria, who his father believed was the demonic offering he was supposed to offer to maintain his grip on Iberia. He is armed with a stone-clad war hammer.
• Ned the Janitor: A skin changed of Xiao Long to look like a Janitor. He replaces Xiao Long on the character select screen through a cheat code. He is armed with a push broom.
• Ichiro Tsunami: A corrupted samurai looking to take his father's throne in Japan and destroy his brother Takeshi. Like his brother, he is armed with a long samurai sword.
• Pojo: The Fighting Chicken, transformed by Countess Taria into something more than human, a force powerful enough to rend the very cosmos in her powerful beak. Pojo wages a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the feathered way.
• Spank': A dummy used for practice. Spanky can only be accessed in the practice menu.
• Warmech: Gar Gunderson, master craftsman of the dwarves, pilots a mighty machine built to fight for his people against the tyrannical rule of Lord Deimos. His name in the life bar appears as Gar.
• Hell Knight: Unlocked on the N64 by default and is a time-bomb release character in the arcade. A minor demon sent to kill Asmodeus and return the Mace of Tanis back to Hell. He is armed with two hellish axes.
• Sir Dregan: Unlocked on the N64 by default and is a time-bomb release character in the arcade. An undead Crusader and member of the Covenant of Seven, he has turned his back on Asmodeus to learn the whereabouts of his lost soul. He is armed with a straight sword and a shield.

Development

Mace: The Dark Age was originally released on the arcade machines using the 3Dfx Voodoo graphics card,^[4] the same technology powering San Francisco Rush. The latest motion capture technology was used during the game's development.^[5] Besides the Nintendo 64 port, a PlayStation version of the game was also planned but never released.^[6]

Reception

Mace: The Dark Age was praised mainly because of its graphics. It was also noted for stage interactions with things such as water, and damaging areas such as lava. According to Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot, Mace "looked fantastic but still played poorly." He gave it a score of 5.4/10, stating: "All in all, Mace is a depressing game. It looks so good that you really want to like it, but it just isn't very much fun to play at all. It falls squarely between Dark Rift and War Gods in the realm of 3D fighting on the N64."^[4] A more positive review by Matt Casamassina of IGN gave it a score of 7.1/10 credit as the best N64 fighting game at the time of its release, though openly acknowledging that the pool of good fighting games available for the N64 at the time was quite shallow.^[7] In 2011, Complex included it on the list of ten "most blatant Mortal Kombat ripoffs, adding, "If anything, it was like a more brutal version of Soul Edge."^[8]

References

External links

• Official website
• Mace: The Dark Age at the Killer List of Videogames
• Mace: The Dark Age at MobyGames
• Mace: The Dark Age at GameFAQs