Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior

Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, released in 1987 by Palace Software, quickly became one of the best-known fighting-game titles of the eight-bit computer era on the Commodore 64. Two sword-wielding warriors face off in a series of duels on a single screen, with a move set that includes slashes, kicks, rolls, and jumps, and a winning blow can literally decapitate the opponent, an unusually raw and graphically explicit element for its time. The game supported both two-player duels and the classic single-player progression against a series of computer-controlled opponents and guards defending the path to a final wizard.

On the technical side, the game became famous above all for the quality of its character animation, which ran smoothly and legibly on the C64's hardware, letting the player clearly recognize the right moment to attack or defend. The game was also made famous by its cover art, an illustration by Boris Vallejo depicting a warrior and a mythical creature alongside model Maria Whittaker, which became one of the most striking box covers of the entire home-computer era and drew attention on its own, even outside the circle of players. The soundtrack was understated, with emphasis placed on the sound effects of combat, which underscored the toughness and directness of the gameplay well and gave every duel a fitting sense of urgency.

Barbarian ranked among the best fighting games on eight-bit platforms in contemporary reviews, and its success led to several sequels as well as a trademark dispute with a rival publisher that released its own game under the same name. Today the title is seen as one proof that the fighting-game genre could work even outside Japanese arcade machines, and its direct, legible two-player gameplay remains fun even decades later, though the graphic depiction of violence is more likely to amuse today's player than shock them the way it once did.

Why play: Anyone looking for a direct two-player duel with real historical significance for the fighting-game genre on eight-bit computers will find fun in Barbarian, whose graphic violence is more likely to amuse today's player than shock them the way it once did.