Wulverblade

Good Looking History
Limbs fly and blood pools across the floor as I hack my way around 120AD Roman occupied Britain. I smash an archers head into the floor repeatedly until he is decapitated and then turn, lobbing it as a missile into an oncoming centurion, knocking him to the ground.
Wulverblade is a side scrolling brawler where non stop button mashing action blends with historical interest, set to the backdrop of a colourful, cartoonish style. The graphics appeal to me aesthetically with detail and layered environments. I loved the animated backgrounds which added immersion, such as a flight of deer running behind you in the forest, crows watching you from the foreground or a distant battle taking place. The animations are smooth and fast with satisfying combos, a rage bar for ultimate annihilation and the ability to call upon your wolves once per level to savage the enemy. I recommend you save it for when you're being overwhelmed, as this game really does love to throw numbers against you.
The amount of historical depth was impressive - with lots of information, cut scenes and collectibles. Even the odd secret or two to discover.
Simple Gameplay
The gameplay is a little generic and I felt it was somewhat lacking although some might find it simply nostalgic. We have two main moves, light and heavy attack, with an array of weapons, both melee and missile which you pick up from fallen enemies as well as an essential block. There are breakables, food items and collectibles, but the only progression is in the story and how long you can survive. There are no increasing stats, no where to spend your mad loot (it simply accumulates your high score) and after the first few hours my fingers were numb and it was time to take a break. I didn't really feel I was playing with any skill or learning much as the game went on, purely charging at enemies and hitting X until I was surrounded by blood and bodies.
There is a boss fight to every level, but they're heavily telegraphed and not too challenging. The biggest challenge came from hordes of stun-locking enemies who kept knocking me down, which was a little bit more frustrating than I'd like. Bear in mind though, I'm not exactly good at video games so this probably could have been avoided. On the whole, I found the normal enemies more challenging than the bosses, just because of being overwhelmed by numbers.
Bring a Controller to the Party
The game is not well optimized for keyboard and mouse, to the point where I personally found it unplayable. The keys cannot be rebound, and I've never seen a game that makes you hit k, l and ; for your moves. It just didn't work well for me at all. I switched to controller about 10 minutes into the game, which is intuitive and responsive, and I simply don't consider keyboard and mouse a viable option for me with these controls, which is a little annoying for a PC release.
It's a shame that the gameplay didn't have more depth and customization as I prefer my action to have a little bit of RPG added into it, but some will enjoy the simplicity of the arcade-brawler and what's there is done very well, as long as you're willing to pick up a controller.
The art and history behind this game kept me playing far longer than the gameplay did, but it's worth mentioning that it supports full online co-op and this is definitely a game I'd enjoy playing with a friend. At around 5-6 hours for a playthrough and then high score modes available, you'll have to judge whether it's worth the entry price of £11.39.
I'd recommend it if you really enjoy the arcade action of a side scrolling brawler coupled with an interesting setting and attractive aesthetic.
Wulverblade certainly has style, but I'm not completely sold on the substance.
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Review by Games for Lovers - only GOOD local co-op games!
You want to play something with your significant other?
Then this bloody beat'em up could be interesting for you.
The gameplay is exactly like it already was in the 80s, the screen scrolls from left to right while you run along, always taking a little stop to defeat the numerous enemies that enter the game from both sides. Once they are all defeated, the scrolling continues until you reach the end of the level.
Your aim is to defeat the Ninth Legion of the Roman army and its local allies. There are two male heroes to choose from, either Caradoc or Brennus, and for your SO there is the female red-haired Guinevere to play through the eight levels.
The story is inspired by historical events from Roman-era Britain. You can support each other in local co-op mode and pummel the Romans together. As the game progresses, fights get harder and enemies require you to use counters, blocks, and other tactics to properly dispatch them. All moves are available from the start and what limits you on how far you can progress is just your ability to learn and master them.
Works fine with XBox 360 and XBox One gamepads. No online mode (but online high-score lists).
Conclusion:
One of the better beat 'em ups you can enjoy in co-op.

Wulverblade is not your regular Beat 'em up. While it retains the carefree attitude of most Beat 'em ups, as well as the cartoon like aesthetic, it sets itself apart by both it's Historic setting, and it's devotion to history. The story and the setting are deeply rooted in 2nd Century Britain, and the makers have tried to keep the look of the characters and the landscape firmly based in that without being slaves to it. The game is also peppered with optional infoboxes and videos that the player can choose to read/watch if they want to take the occasional break. As a fan of history I really appreciated these.
Gameplay wise, each stage is progressively more challenging as the difficulty noticeably jumps each time. Enemies really do get trickier and trickier each time. Depending on the difficulty and mode the player picks, you can go from fairly standard progress to really hard, particularly in Arcade which offers just 3 lives per level and no checkpoints. This means Wulverblade can be accessible to those who want fast progress and those who want a real challenge.
Wulverblade is really a game of good contrast: It has a fun, colourful side displayed in the art style and the energy of the brawling, and a more mature side in the snippets of real history sprinkled into it.
I get the impression that Wulverblade is going to fly under most people's radar, it's not a game I feel that was on either players or the media's radar, but I can tell that a lot of love and time went into this project. The art, animation, and design are all really well done and it very evident a lot of research went into the game. If this game fails to be people's cup of tea, it won't be for lack of trying. A clear effort was made on this game.

Extensive knowledge of Shetland folklore isn't exactly a topic on my resume, so I had no idea what a Wulver was. Apparently, it's some kind of humanoid wolf creature. But unlike a werewolf, the night sky doesn't need to be lit by a full moon for a Wulver to scare the living daylights out of you. Combining Scottish mythology and Roman history, Wulverblade tells the story of a Caledonian tribe trying to stop the invasion of their land by the Roman Empire's Ninth Legion about two millennia ago.
Wulverblade is a side-scrolling brawler with an incredible attention to historic detail. If history isn't your thing, then you can just ignore this aspect of the game and enjoy some hack-n-slash fun. But if you want to take a breather from chopping off enemies' heads and killing more enemies by throwing those heads at them, you might learn a thing or two by checking out the game's extensive historical background section.
I hadn't played a beat 'em up in years. After trying the game with my keyboard for about five minutes, I quickly went looking for my old gamepad in a box in the attic. I'm absolutely no expert in arcade games but I really enjoyed playing Wulverblade. The cartoonish graphics really appealed to me and I found the gameplay to be really enjoyable. The game consists of eight stages and while some might find that a little short, there are three different characters to choose from and you'll have to finish the game with all three of them if you're an achievement hunter. Besides the main campaign, there's a wave mode with a bunch of arenas you can choose from and once you finish the game, a beast mode unlocks. So even if you find the main campaign on the short side, there's still plenty of fun to be had once you've finished it. It's also possible to play the game in co-op but I haven't tried that yet.
I really enjoyed playing Wulverblade. I even bought a new Xbox controller because of it because my old gamepad turned out to be rather rubbish. I can imagine that a lot of people don't care about the history aspect of the game but I really like it. Scotland is still on my list of holiday destinations and I'm sure that some of the locations mentioned in this game will be part of a future trip to old Caledonia.

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Wulverblade is a sidescrolling hack and slash game in the vein of Shank or the overlooked Zombie Vikings, and pretty good one at that. With three playable characters, all with distinct styles, there can be a lot of variety in your playstyle. While I played the game solo, I can definitely see all three complimenting each other very well if played in co-op. Speaking of single player, this game can be a real kick in the nuts at times when played solo and I found myself having to drop the difficulty down to easy a level or two in. Those looking for a challenge need look no further. How this difficulty scales with multiple people, I cannot say, but when played solo it can be very tough.
The gameplay is solid but I do wish that there was some sort of upgrade system or progression for the characters. With what you are presented with arsenal-wise fits with the length of the game, but I wanted just a bit more. I did, however, really like the idea of enemies dropping weapons (and limbs) and being able to use those as projectile weapons. I haven’t seen that before and thought that it was a pretty fun idea. While the gameplay is entertaining enough I found the story to be kind of take it or leave it, although the comic style cutscenes are really well done.
As an action brawler you can do much, much worse than Wulverblade. It presents tried and true brawler gameplay and brings a few new ideas to the table as well. Although it’s good solo I’d probably recommend this as a co-op experience, especially considering the difficulty curve. It’s a fun, bloody way to spend an afternoon.

Wulverblade is a beat em up set in the historical Britannia 120 A.D. where you pick one of three characters and fight off the 9th Legion of Rome.
Story:
In Wulverblade you can pick one of three characters, Caradoc, Brennus or Guinevere. One day their tribe is attacked by people who have sided with Romans. The Romans plan on taking their land and you are thrust into a fight with the 9th Legion to save your land and your family.
The story in Wulverblade is very bland and uninspired, but the game used real life historical locations for inspiration and that really helps the story to stay interesting, with notes and videos providing some information on the level you played and how it looked like in real life.
Graphics:
The art style in Wulverblade is really good. The hand drawn animations remind me of a comic book and all the characters and environments look amazing. Each character has some really good animations, even though they are really basic. Not to mention a lot of inspiration, just like the story came from the real life locations.
Enemy designs are varied up until you get to the Romans and once you see them, they recycle all the enemy designs up until the end of the game and even some bosses show up as mini bosses later on, which was rather disappointing.
Audio:
Let’s first talk about the voice acting. Pretty much everyone does a really decent job at voice acting, I didn’t mind it and didn’t think it was bad at any point and in fact thought it was really good in certain moments. I especially loved the narrator. His voice is absolutely perfect and I liked his performance.
The music in this game is also pretty decent. I enjoyed most of the tracks, even though they are rather forgettable in a sense. Pretty much every track in the game is this cliche epic music you hear in seemingly all historical epic movies, TV shows and even video games.
Gameplay:
Wulverblade is a classic Beat’Em’Up game, inspired by the classics such as Golden Axe. There’s literally nothing special in it that changes up the classic formula. As stated before you pick one of three different characters, all of them are pretty much the same apart from slight difference; for example one of them might have a weak attack and fast movement and the other might be a brute but move slowly.
You go through each of the eight levels in the story beating everyone to a pulp and at the end of the level you fight a boss. As you go through the level you can find secret weapons and each weapon will unlock a historical note. When you beat people up your rage mode fills and that’s like a special attack where you get your health back and do more damage.
Playing through the story mode took me around 5 hours to finish, but there’s a bunch of replay value such as trying other characters. Also, there’s an arena mode that is sort of like a survival mode where you fight waves of enemies.
There are however a few problems. The game has a massive difficulty spike in the last two levels of the game and players intending to play through the hardest difficulty needs to prepare to die over and replay levels multiple times until they reach the end.
Verdict:
Wulverblade is a really fun beat’em’up even though it’s nothing new. The combat is fun, the story is decent and it’s pretty much a solid buy if you like Beat’Em’Ups.
7.5/10
Pros:
+ Fun gameplay
+ Amazing art style
+ Interesting story
Cons:
- Massive difficulty spikes
Note: The game was reviewed with a code provided by a developer/publisher.
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I have played the first 2 stages of the game and I think that at 15 dollars it is a steal.
The art is beautiful, the story is interesting, the animations are fluid. The gameplay is fantastic.
Slash slash slash, oh, wait, B blocks. What if I block just before being hit? @_@ Did I just do a super gory and damaging parry?
Devs, I only beat 2 stages, but I already want more. I'm playing this all evening after I get done with chores. Best beat 'em up in YEARS. I love it.