Power Monger
Developer:
PAL:
Check Pricing here:- Bullfrog Productions
- Electronic Arts
- Super Nes
PAL:
- 1993
- Real Time Strategy
- Single-player
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/pal-super-nintendo/powermonger?q=power+monger+snes
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Your rule was fair and just. Your fate may not be...In a world without kings, Power is the only Law
Your kingdom of Miremer was destroyed. You and your remaining followers have set sail in search of a new fertile lane. Unfortunately, petty warlords ravage the land. You can debase yourself into vassalage to these backward nobles or fight back and save your followers from misrule. You will become king once again... or die trying
Your kingdom of Miremer was destroyed. You and your remaining followers have set sail in search of a new fertile lane. Unfortunately, petty warlords ravage the land. You can debase yourself into vassalage to these backward nobles or fight back and save your followers from misrule. You will become king once again... or die trying
Power Monger is a real time strategy game that is set in a fantasy realm where Kings are no more and the player must take control of the land once piece at a time by conquering small portions of land at a time. There are 100+ levels to conquer while you reign as the Power Monger in the lands.
The game is played by controlling a commander and his current army. There are multiple actions in which a commander can undertake. The actions found on the left hand panel can be clicked for explanation, however they are basic actions to attack, defend and survive as a commander. Your commander is your army leader and will lead his followers into battle or get them to follow his orders which are the players actions.
The game is played in real time and each level has it's own landmass design with towns, roads, forests and small armies roaming. As a player the objective is to conquer each land mass (level) by attacking the small villages that have colored villagers. The colors can be red, blue, yellow and more. Once you attack a village, the remaining population will run away and then return with white clothing on, which is your team. Once a village is taken, you will gain a small percentage up when you click on the scale in the bottom left screen.
The level then continues to play out as the player continues to conquer the smaller villages of different colors before facing of against larger settlements or armies. As you take towns, you gain the ability to reinforce your army and this is why it's a key strategy to winning. Once you gain enough percentage or tip the scales, the land will be won and you can retire. You will get a pop up message to say well done and then that land will now have a dagger and yellow box around it. That represents it has been completed and then will allow you to attempt to conquer the bordering lands.
Once you complete all the lands you finish the game, however if you lose your main commander in any level you lose the game.
Default layout (Quick pad mode on):
D-Pad: Move Cursor
L: Rotate map left
R: Rotate map right
D-Pad: Move Cursor
L: Rotate map left
R: Rotate map right
X: Access commander panel
Y: Access map movement panels
B: Tutorial button over highlighted objects
A: Accept or activate
Select: In game map menu
Y: Access map movement panels
B: Tutorial button over highlighted objects
A: Accept or activate
Select: In game map menu
Start: Pause
*Quick pad mode off turns the controller more into a mouse for users who prefer that
*Super Nes Mouse Compatible
*Quick pad mode off turns the controller more into a mouse for users who prefer that
*Super Nes Mouse Compatible
Power Monger Introduction Video
Power Monger Gameplay Sample
Story and Gameplay - 1 points
Power Monger is a real time strategy game that is set in a feudal realm of warlords and power mongers. This game was released originally in 1990 on Amiga and then was ported over to the Super Nintendo in 1993. This is one of the early published works for Electronic Arts and developed by Bullfrog Productions.
The introduction video sets a nice theme as a lonely horse rider enters a fortress full of armored men. A map opens and then a dark grin emerges from their leader. It's about power and using it to conquer the land that is now available thanks to the fall of the Kingdom of Miremer. Once the game begins the story is very absent and it becomes more of a click and go game that focuses more on gameplay and less on the narrative.
The game play itself is quite brave for its age and is similar to Civilization but on smaller level scale with no ability to expand your land only ways to battle other forces. It's a very strategic game that requires much focus, as the enemy is also live on the map and hard to see. Once you understand the basics of conquering small villagers before going after the big ones, you can pretty much steam roll most levels. The levels aren't massive but will last 10 minutes +, whoever there are a load of levels to conquer.
The story and gameplay are really disconnected on this one and once you get into it, it does slow down and become quite repetitive unfortunately due to it's level design and basic gameplay elements.
The introduction video sets a nice theme as a lonely horse rider enters a fortress full of armored men. A map opens and then a dark grin emerges from their leader. It's about power and using it to conquer the land that is now available thanks to the fall of the Kingdom of Miremer. Once the game begins the story is very absent and it becomes more of a click and go game that focuses more on gameplay and less on the narrative.
The game play itself is quite brave for its age and is similar to Civilization but on smaller level scale with no ability to expand your land only ways to battle other forces. It's a very strategic game that requires much focus, as the enemy is also live on the map and hard to see. Once you understand the basics of conquering small villagers before going after the big ones, you can pretty much steam roll most levels. The levels aren't massive but will last 10 minutes +, whoever there are a load of levels to conquer.
The story and gameplay are really disconnected on this one and once you get into it, it does slow down and become quite repetitive unfortunately due to it's level design and basic gameplay elements.
Controls and Features - 2 point
Power Monger has a variety of controller set ups which is good because it's overall look and feel can be quite over whelming for someone with only a controller. The game allows you to switch up between quick pad mode or use a compatible mouse, which does the same. Quick Pad gives you the ability to press buttons which switches you over to the panels needed while using a mouse allows you to freely move your cursor and click the panel. I used both methods but ultimately I felt the free mouse approach was best for this game and it's play style.
If you only have a controller, the initial learning period might be a little frustrating because of the amount of times buttons must be pressed to cycle between action panel and your map cursor. Pressing 'x' or 'y' moves you to the appropriate panel however you must press the button again to switch back to the general play map area. If you accidently press the wrong button you move to that panel or have to repeat your action again. This is why I recommend turning quick pad mode off and letting the controller act as a mouse.
This game is quite interesting once you get into it. It features a mouse and cursor style of gameplay with the ability to access menus. It's very similar to early RTS games but has less player input when it come's to expanding armies. The action panel has a few useful functions and allows you to also adjust how much of a resource your army takes by setting your stance. Being aggressive means you will win more battles and plunder more resources while being passive means you might take more causalities and less rewards. It's important to change that however, because a towns like towards you and your men changes based on how you treat them. Take to much and they might attack you.
The level map is massive and allows you to play a level in any order you wish as long as it touches the border of an already conquered level. Once a level is conquered a dagger will rest of the mass and the border will turn yellow. You can go back and play it again, but essentially it's conquered and now you can push out from that location and take more land. The choice in which you can play is fantastic because the amount of levels is high and the game does feel a bit stale if you left to right or follow a linear path of land controlling.
There is also no save function which means if you plan to conquer every inch of land, bring a note pad or some way to scribble your passwords. The password system works but the letters on screen sometimes are hard to read so be careful taking them down. I miswrote a few letters because of the lack clarity which made me replay a level or two.
If you only have a controller, the initial learning period might be a little frustrating because of the amount of times buttons must be pressed to cycle between action panel and your map cursor. Pressing 'x' or 'y' moves you to the appropriate panel however you must press the button again to switch back to the general play map area. If you accidently press the wrong button you move to that panel or have to repeat your action again. This is why I recommend turning quick pad mode off and letting the controller act as a mouse.
This game is quite interesting once you get into it. It features a mouse and cursor style of gameplay with the ability to access menus. It's very similar to early RTS games but has less player input when it come's to expanding armies. The action panel has a few useful functions and allows you to also adjust how much of a resource your army takes by setting your stance. Being aggressive means you will win more battles and plunder more resources while being passive means you might take more causalities and less rewards. It's important to change that however, because a towns like towards you and your men changes based on how you treat them. Take to much and they might attack you.
The level map is massive and allows you to play a level in any order you wish as long as it touches the border of an already conquered level. Once a level is conquered a dagger will rest of the mass and the border will turn yellow. You can go back and play it again, but essentially it's conquered and now you can push out from that location and take more land. The choice in which you can play is fantastic because the amount of levels is high and the game does feel a bit stale if you left to right or follow a linear path of land controlling.
There is also no save function which means if you plan to conquer every inch of land, bring a note pad or some way to scribble your passwords. The password system works but the letters on screen sometimes are hard to read so be careful taking them down. I miswrote a few letters because of the lack clarity which made me replay a level or two.
Design and Difficulty - 2 points
Power Monger is an interesting game to play because it is clearly outdated now since it was released 30 years ago. There are some clear design choices that modern day players would just shake their head at. However the game was very brave for it's time and it does play rather well and have some ground breaking features.
The way to play is a little overwhelming at first looks because of how heavy the screen is with buttons and game elements. It's not overly complicated if you take the time firstly to just read the button tutorials and slowly conquer the first level which is the easiest and makes for a perfect training ground. Playing with the settings as you progress also helps the game flow faster and make it less boring after a few levels.
The graphics are a bit outdated and pixelated, however there is so much going on screen that if they were any better it would probably run like a crap. The idea is to destroy anyone that doesn't look like your army and in this game the colors help clearly identify the enemy.
There is no real music sound tracks apart from the main introduction sequence and a between map wins. The overall sounds are a bit annoying because they are made obviously loud when on screen or nearby. So some times a sheep might be heard but not seen. There are much more annoying noises that are quite loud by default so that did drive me crazy during long sessions.
No real difficult setting however the game does provide a good challenge due to the learning curve and overall size of the campaign. Each level has it's own difficulties based on it's overall design and how many towns and other alliances are present when you begin. So that with the huge task of conquering over 100 lands makes this one time consuming and challenging when it comes to the difficulty.
Fun and Summary - 👎The way to play is a little overwhelming at first looks because of how heavy the screen is with buttons and game elements. It's not overly complicated if you take the time firstly to just read the button tutorials and slowly conquer the first level which is the easiest and makes for a perfect training ground. Playing with the settings as you progress also helps the game flow faster and make it less boring after a few levels.
The graphics are a bit outdated and pixelated, however there is so much going on screen that if they were any better it would probably run like a crap. The idea is to destroy anyone that doesn't look like your army and in this game the colors help clearly identify the enemy.
There is no real music sound tracks apart from the main introduction sequence and a between map wins. The overall sounds are a bit annoying because they are made obviously loud when on screen or nearby. So some times a sheep might be heard but not seen. There are much more annoying noises that are quite loud by default so that did drive me crazy during long sessions.
No real difficult setting however the game does provide a good challenge due to the learning curve and overall size of the campaign. Each level has it's own difficulties based on it's overall design and how many towns and other alliances are present when you begin. So that with the huge task of conquering over 100 lands makes this one time consuming and challenging when it comes to the difficulty.
Power Monger is a really unique game for the time and some people might really dig the idea of early real time strategy games, however I felt that even though it's unique it still lacked level depth and went for a quantity or quality approach for the levels and overall game size.
The game is fun once you figure out the initial few levels and begin to gain real control over the army but that was soon lost with me. I played the game for several hours at a time and took a break when bored, only to see that the work I had done cleared a tiny percentage of the map. It's a huge game if you really want to push all the way through you can but after conquering around half the map, I gave up because the gameplay wasn't changing and got really boring.
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