Krull from 1983 was created as a game tie-in to the fantasy film of the same name, and from manufacturer Gottlieb it offered players a series of distinct sections mirroring key scenes from the film's story about a young prince trying to rescue his bride, kidnapped by the ruler of the Slayers aboard his roaming fortress. As Prince Colwyn, the player fights through several different passages, including a battle in a spider's lair, a flight on horseback across a chasm, or the final confrontation with the Beast in his fortress, with each passage demanding a different tactic.
Each section has its own rules and control scheme, which was a fairly bold choice for its time – the player must quickly adapt to a changing type of gameplay during a single session with the machine, instead of mastering the whole game with one learned approach as most titles of the era required. The main weapon is the legendary Glaive, a five-bladed weapon that, once thrown, can be aimed at a target and then called back like a boomerang, which became a visual icon of the film itself and its promotional materials as well.
The graphics use colorful vector and raster elements typical of arcades in the first half of the 1980s, and the music quotes the film's themes, albeit in the limited form the hardware of the time allowed. Although Krull never ranked among the best-selling machines and today is more of a curiosity for collectors, it remains an interesting example of an early film license turned into a playable form, even before such adaptations became a common standard.
Why play it: Alternating between five distinct gameplay sections based on scenes from the film offers an unusual variety that film adaptations of the time rarely provided.
Game 107 of 258 for Arcade
