Retro Reflections: Xena Warrior Princess: The Talisman Of Fate

I was hooked on the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys television show early on, ever since it started out as movies from the Action Pack programming block, but as soon as Xena received her own show I had switched teams. I think this new adventure accomplished a lot more in the way of character development, and frankly, Lucy Lawless over Kevin Sorbo any day. I also think that Xena had the better video games, but I’m not sure there’s much competition in that department.

The truth is that Xena: Warrior Princess – Talisman of Fate may not even be the best game based on the Warrior Princess’ property, but I’m saving that PS1 gem for later. No one was asking for a tournament style fighting game with early 3D mechanics featuring some of their favorite characters from a popular television show, but sometimes we just need a good N64 title to be reminded how far games have come, and how ambitious they were.

I always say that the N64 was in need of more good games in this genre, but I doubt most thought that a licensed game based off of the Xena: Warrior Princess show was going to be the answer for that when it was released in 1999. The sad truth is that Talisman of Fate doesn’t add much or innovate anything, but it is quite competent. Someone asked me if it was better than Star Wars: Masters of the Teras Kasi on PS1, and I don’t even need to hesitate on this one–a thousand times yes–but there are reasons why so many people haven’t heard of this one.

The engine running the game is suitable albeit with a few performance issues, but the code lacks some hit detection for sure. The controls are far from wretched though, and I might have called them intuitive if the button layout were different. Some go unused, and reassigning the buttons could have made some hand motions easier. Character movement can thankfully be done by using the thumbstick or d-pad, and almost all of the special moves are some form of back, forward then an attack button.

Even with that though, it took me a minute to figure specific ranged attacks out and they all feel incredibly similar, and I would often accidentally do the taunt input instead of my intended action. There are some maneuvers that are stage specific, but these feel like an unnecessary gimmick. Those don’t flow well in normal combat, and making the effort to perform them could have been better used on a basic attack in most cases. The fighting could certainly use a lot more depth, but as the core gameplay, it functions well and was somewhat enjoyable.

The game was developed by the Saffire Corporation, a company who had also designed an even more interesting fighting game for the N64 called Bio F.R.E.A.K.S and Rampage World Tour, both of which are worth checking out. This title gets more commonly associated with their publisher though, Titus, who everyone still hates for Superman 64—never forget.

The setup story for the game is weak, and it won’t surprise anyone that it’s a tournament based around an all powerful McGuffin with a boss created just for the game. I don’t want to say this makes Mortal Kombat look like Shakespeare, but it’s true and a good line. If this title didn’t have the background and character development from the show to fall back on, it would have been even worse.

The roster is comprised of characters from the show, minus that pesky aforementioned cheap boss fight, and it was kind of neat to see a fighting game have so many female characters to choose from. No, I’m not counting Bikini Karate Babes. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the show though, so I had to look up a few of the unfamiliar faces, like Lao Ma and Velasca. There are endings for each fighter that makes it through the story mode, but these are nothing special. They are comprised of a paragraph or two and some still images, like many of the games from that time. Turns out that my favorite character on the show, Gabrielle, is also one of the most overpowered heroes to play as, and she looks good doing it.

As far as N64 games go, this one doesn’t look like an eyesore, with the characters resembling their television counterparts, and the backgrounds offering some great environments that worked for the setting and offered some decent colors and texture. The only negative is some of the movement animations look awkward at times. The music befits the tone of the show, depending on the selected characters, as that Joxer theme always throws me off. There were a couple of instances where the audio seemed to drop off or cut out for no reason, but nothing too bad.

The story mode doesn’t have much replay value, but for anyone who can still get three friends to come over and play N64—I have two and make my wife play sometimes—there is an excellent four player arena battle mode. It plays well, and thankfully has a dedicated button to help change who the character is looking at, making accidental hits and missed intentional strikes less likely, something a ton of wrestling games never did right.

This is where any real longevity from the game probably comes from, especially for anyone who doesn’t want to deal with the single-player modes sudden spike in difficulty at the end. There are a few cheat codes as well that I’m sure someone would enjoy trying out, but MOST of them are visual gags.

This game is more entertaining than I was expecting, and honestly, might be one of the better licensed games from that era. The developers who made this were either serious fans of the show or put in a ton of research and care. The tone shifts, but it lets the player know not to take anything too seriously with a Joxer joke right at the beginning and some of the sound effects used for Autolycus, keeping things fun. Any game I can play as Bruce Campbell also gets a few extra points in my book. This is one I would recommend, as it can still be found for cheap, and I’ll be keeping this copy in my collection. I think I’m going to have to do a re-watch of the show as well now, though.