Virgin Barbarians wanted
Slice and dice your way through various fantasy locations in this enterprising new-age scrolling fighter
Scrolling beat 'em ups are all the rage again. Admittedly, they've had a lick of paint, but those 8 and 16-bit classics of yore seem to have inspired plenty of games recently, State of Emergency for one. And Barbarian for two. Titus / Virgin's slick new fighter sees players picking from eight warriors and wreaking havoc across ten fantasty environments, which the press release boldly compares to those dreamt up by JRR Tolkien. Along with GBA and Xbox versions, a PlayStation 2 release is promised this June, and Virgin has just released ten new shots of the game, which, despite being labelled GBA, PS2 and Xbox, we're pretty sure come from the PS2 version of the game exclusively. Budding Barbarians can use anything in their path to pummel their enemies, including rocks, chairs, dead bodies and .. even the odd swordfish, apparently. Magical powers and attacks will gradually become available as players progress, and with a non-linear storyline and RPG elements that allow players to hone their Barbarian's skills in certain areas, this looks like an interesting prospect. Multiplayer modes are also promised, including what sounds like up to four player co-operative modes... Related Feature - Barbarian screenshots