Sword of Sodan

[Melf]

I had never even heard of Sword of Sodan until about two months ago. Just looking through my old November '92 issue of EGM in its Genesis game directory for insight on what to accumulate from Funcoland on the next trip, I saw this game, and I thought, ''Hey! That guy has a SWORD! I'm going to buy this game!'' It's something about games with sword-wielding protagonists that draw me into buying them. I truly find some classics among them sometimes (like Strider and Actraiser 2) and if not that, I'll at least get an entertaining two hour diversion (like Saint Sword and or X-kalibre 2097). But this case is unlike any other...

[Collision Cat]

What's up with these new threads for old reviews? I saw one for Virtua Fighter earlier today as well.
Edit: I just noticed there's loads of these threads!

[acdc]

again burn it

[Noiman]

So bad that it almost brings me laughter when i play it. And that's a good reason for me to keep my copy.

[bohokii]

i too have that game i bought it from funco land years agofor like $5 and i feel ripped off

i only played it once the controls are weird why collect the bottles of valium? stab them in the dick ? its horrible

its in my album of game pics

[Rusty Venture]

Ahh, "Sword of Sodan". 3.0 is too generous for the likes of you.

[Anthall]

Just too worthless to exist.

Slow laggy movements, bland gameplay, repetitive as hell.
Score: 1.0

[Nicpezer]

I hate the fact the only way to play this game is to circumcise the enemies. Even then you'll still take cheap hits.

[chrisbid]

back in the day, having such a large playable character was something new

that is the only redeeming quality of this game

[havok666]

I was always impressed with the large and detailed character sprites although the art direction is quite generic.

[goldenband]

Brothers and sisters, I am now among the few, the proud, the "WTF-is-wrong-with-you?": for scarcely an hour ago, I beat Sword of Sodan on its highest difficulty setting. That is, Normal difficulty, three starting lives, and using the guy character -- whose name is, I kid you not, "Brodan".

Jokes aside, I think the game is far better than its reputation. Don't get me wrong, it's got loads of problems, and I totally understand why people are frustrated and annoyed by it. It also didn't help that the game defaults to the hardest difficulty setting -- it makes the first level almost unplayable, at least without a lot of experience and patience.

But it seems like Sword of Sodan is yet another entry in the long line of offbeat games with strange controls, and apparently high difficulty, that get trashed relentlessly as "worst game ever" (paging Bokosuka Wars)...but which, if you actually take the time to learn their idiosyncracies, are totally playable and even fun. I've gotten to the point where, on any setting except Normal/Brodan, I can beat the game at least 50% of the time.

I think I even...am I allowed to say this here?...like Sword of Sodan. A lot of people complain about the stiff animation, but it doesn't bother me at all -- it's as if I'm playing a medieval painting come to life. And I like the fact that there's no music during the levels, it's a welcome change from all the in-your-face Poochie power-chord bullshit that plagues so many games from the early 1990s.

For the record, I want to dispel a few myths and misunderstandings about Sword of Sodan:

• "You have to crotch-stab everyone" - Totally not true, and a really bad strategy to boot. The overhead (Up+C) and thrust (Forward+C) attacks are the key to this game, and 99% of the time, they're the only attacks you'll use.
  
• "The pits in Level 5 are invisible" - Again, not true, they're just concealed. If you look at the backgrounds closely, there's a little divot in the stone floor that shows you exactly where they are. Almost everyone gets this wrong, including the guy who wrote the GameFAQs walkthrough, but kudos to the Sega-16 reviewer who gets it right.
  
• "The hit detection sucks" - OK, it kinda does, but at least it's consistent. Once you learn where the hit boxes are on your enemies, they're pretty reliable.
  
• "It's unbelievably gay" - I can't really argue with that, because it's easily one of the most homoerotic games I've ever played, on a par with NES Ring King even. (Cue Jerry Seinfeld saying "Not that there's anything wrong with that!") I'd normally assume it was all unintentional, but when even the programmer bio in the manual says that "he may be on Uranus", you really start to wonder. Actually, I think it'd be totally awesome if the whole game was deliberate camp; maybe John Waters could direct a sequel? "Sword of Sodan 2: The Battle of Baltimore!"

Having said that, there are two things that 100% suck in this game, at least if you're playing on Normal difficulty. One is the first level, which is relatively easy with Shardan (the girl), but a nightmare with the guy, who doesn't have enough reach to match the pikemen; a flaming sword (ahem) is the only answer here. The other one is the giant soldiers at the start of Level 5 where, unless you have an orange potion or a shield, it's basically impossible to kill them if they double up on you.

There are some other things missing from the GameFAQs walkthrough, and I've thought about either emailing the author, or writing a second walkthrough of my own. For example, you can get through Level 4 (the zombie level) without taking a hit, simply by immediately jumping to the far right side of the screen and attacking repeatedly. Done correctly, it works every time: the zombies never have a chance, because you push them offscreen faster than the scrolling can catch up.

There's a warp in Level 5, triggered by falling into the third pit (IIRC), that sends you straight to Level 6 and bypasses the rest of the giant soldiers. And in the final boss battle, you can actually drive him backwards just by kneeling right next to him! I also think he has some sort of regeneration timer -- sometimes I've had to kill him three or four times before he changes into the wizard form, but if I do a lot of damage quickly, it only takes one cycle. (The occasional audio chime might have something to do with this? Not sure.)

So...anyone else out there who'll stand up for this much-maligned but lovable freak of a game?

[Kollision]

That's some great insight, goldenband!

I remember I beat Sword of Sodan a loooong time ago, and I really admire your dedication to a game that gets so much hatred.

[The Coop]

So...anyone else out there who'll stand up for this much-maligned but lovable freak of a game?

I'll defend Heavy Nova, but SoS can rot. It's the first time I got stung buying a Genesis game. I looked at the back, saw the "OMG BLUD!" images and picked it up.

Oh how the EB clerk must have been laughing at me.

This game and Slaughter Sport are my Genesis shames. For all the times I took a chance on games that never got a review back then (Alisia Dragoon, Master of Monsters, Tinhead, etc.), SoS was one of the games that reminded me to not trust the pictures on the box (a lesson I watched my friends learn back when the C64 boxes had images from the Atari ST versions- which looked a lot better- but the box didn't tell you they were the Atari ST version).

[Sega Genesis]

I like this game even though I realize it is supposed to suck. I have beaten it multiple times using the woman since she is faster. I enjoy maximizing my game by mixing potions and not waisting them. I know the gameplay can be stiff and cheap but it doesn't stop me from blowing the dust off this game from time to time to play it.

[The Jackal]

Always thought this game was terrible when I was first introducing to it when me and Nunzio wrote an article a while back thinking I was the only one who thought so; thank god I can across this old thread. This has got to be the worst MD/Gen game I've ever played; no redeming qualities at all, a pain to play and see. Avoid.