Archon: The Light and the Dark (1983)

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Genre: Strategy

Players: 1-2

Rating: (none)

Platform: NES 

 

Archon is visually similar to chess, but possesses a number of significant changes.  While the gaming space resembles a chessboard and the various pieces are likewise designed to have various offsetting abilities, when one piece attempts to take another, the removal of the targeted piece is not automatic. Instead, the two pieces are placed into a full-screen ‘combat arena’ and must battle (arcade-style, with the players running their respective pawns) to determine who takes the square. 

Generally (but not always) in combat, a stronger piece will defeat a weaker piece in either defending or capturing a square. It is also possible for the fight to result in a double-kill, in which both pieces are eliminated. This uncertainty adds a level of complexity into the game, since it is not always possible to predict if taking a square will be successful.Different pieces have different abilities in the combat phase including movement, lifespan, weapon damage and attributes. The weapons vary by range, speed, rate-of-fire, and power. For example, the pawn (represented by knights on the ‘light’ side and goblins on the ‘dark’ side) attacks quickly, but has very little strength.  Its weapon, a sword or club, has limited reach and power.  A dragon, on the other hand, is considerably stronger and can attack from a distance, while a golem moves lethargically and fires a slow but powerful boulder.

Some pieces even have special abilities. The Phoenix can turn into a ball of fire, both damaging the enemy and shielding itself from enemy attacks, while the shapeshifter assumes the form and abilities of whatever piece it is up against. 

Each character’s strength is also affected by the color of the square on which the combat occurs, indicated by the checkered pattern of the board. The ‘light’ team is stronger on white squares and during the light cycle on neutral spaces, while the dark strengthens on its own color.

Each side also has a spellcaster piece (the Sorceress for the dark side, the Wizard for the light side) which can cast seven different spells; each spell may be used only once per game by each spellcaster. They are:

Teleport – teleports one of your pieces to any square.

Heal – fully heals one piece.

Shift Time – reverses the light/dark cycle.

Exchange – swaps the board locations of any two pieces.

Summon Elemental – summons one of four elementals randomly to a chosen square to battle an enemy piece — the elemental disappears after the battle.

Revive – returns one of your defeated pieces to the board.

Imprison – prevents the target piece from moving until the light/dark cycle returns to its color. The spells may not be cast on pieces currently sitting on one of the five ‘power points’, which are located at the center of the board and the center of each of the four sides. 

The game is usually won when either an entire team has been destroyed by the opposing player or one of the teams occupies all five power points.  A side may also win by Imprisoning its opponent’s last remaining piece although this is a rare occurrence. If each side has but a single piece, and the two pieces destroy each other in a double-kill, the game ends in a tie.

Though this game contains many complicated elements, they all combine to create the most awesome game I have ever played.  

–Collin Sicard