Computer game reviews

"It has taken over a year of discussion, planning and revision to get this far," said Jay Huang (黃杉全), marketing manager for Interwise. "Thunder Blade (霹靂狂刀) has already become wildly popular on television, and now we will offer everyone the chance to play this character and inhabiting a world of martial arts chivalry."

According to Huang, the RPG game was influenced by the spectacular graphics of the TV program from which it was derived, leading to the incorporation of more complex scenarios, multiple angles of vision and movements that that are still rare in the RPG game format. For example, when a character moves or runs into combat, the scenery around him moves in response to his actions, rather than remaining static.

The game also incorporates elements from Square's Final Fantasy series, allowing characters to call on up to six mythical beasts to come to their assistance, making the combat sequences even more elaborate and exciting. According to Louis Huang (黃品豪), deputy chief of marketing at Interwise, the design for Thunder Blade was done by Ga Ya Software (加亞資訊), who used traditional Chinese landscape painting for the background effects.

Han and Rome

By Softstar Entertainment Inc

Released June 2002

For games based on stories of Chinese martial arts and chivalry, one of the most successful must be the Sky Sword series (軒轅劍). While Softstar has continued to push this game with the recent released of an online version, titled Chain of Life, it has also decided to develop a military game based on Shogun: Total War which it has titled Han and Rome (漢朝與羅馬).

The game, released in June, works on the real-time strategy (RTS) model, and allows players to take the role of either China or Rome, providing options of military expansion through Asia, Europe and Africa, with many peoples, such as the Mongols, Goths and Egyptians coming on the scene. "The geographical expanse allows the players to operate in a wide range of environments and weather conditions, and they must adapt their strategy to these complex conditions," said Antonio Lu (呂維振), a senior editor of Gamebase Web site.

According to Lu, the main breakthrough for this game is the development of battle formations. With over 20 types of military units to choose from, the player must position them in an advantageous formation which makes use of the geographical factors as well."

All the above games have been developed primarily for a local audience and are currently only available with a Chinese-language interface.