Review: Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest

The PlayStation Move has not had a huge number of standout titles so far. There have been a few impressive titles, like Sports Champions or the Child of Eden port, as well as titles like Heavy Rain that have had Move controls included but not featured. Fresh on the block is Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest, from the makers of Sports Champions and incorporating all the good elements that the titled entailed.

Let’s start off with this simple factoid, shall we? Medieval Moves is a good all-ages title for PlayStation Move. Unlike certain previously reviewed games that shall remain nameless, it is well-built, easy to play and does what it sets out to do. Unlike Zindagi Games’ previous title Sports Champions, this outing is less pick-up-and-play and more story-driven. You take on the role of Deadmund, a skeletal warrior formerly known as Edmund (do you see what they did there?).  Transformed when a rather unpleasant skeletal sorcerer named Morgrimm invades his kingdom, Deadmund sets out to ride the rails through hordes of boneheads (do you see what I did there?) to take him down once and for all.

On his quest, Deadmund accumulates a minor arsenal to take down his foes. From the standard sword and shield through to bow and arrow, dynamite and ninja stars, you’ve got plenty of ways to take down your enemies. Many of the motion control styles used for these weapons are pulled straight from Sports Champions – sword and shield are from the Gladiator minigame, the archery system is transferred across, and your ninja stars throw surprisingly similarly to a Frisbee from Frisbee Golf. This is by no means a bad thing, of course! The controls on each of these games were good to start with, and seem to have been tweaked slightly on their way into Medieval Moves. If I did have one minor gripe it’s that the sword controls don’t feel as 1:1 as they could be, and I found myself waggling rather than swinging my blade.

One confusing element from the games is the on-rails system. When the PlayStation Move has a perfectly good Navigation Controller available (and the standard PS3 controller as a substitute where needed), it feels silly that you have no control over Deadmund’s movement. This is compounded by collectibles in the game that you can only grab if you have time to before you’re pulled along to the next section.

Given this insistence on moving forward, I’m surprised at how long the levels are. Each seems to drag on just a bit longer than it should, making what could otherwise be enjoyable little clumps of gaming into swollen blobs of monotony. Motion controls are all well and good, but you need to mind the portion size!

Gripes aside, Medieval Moves is clearly intended for a slightly young set of players, or family groups. With that goal in mind, the candy-coloured backdrops, caricatured  enemies and reasonably simple gameplay makes sense. For a more seasoned gamer it’s an interesting distraction, but won’t hold your attention forever. Still, if you do want a reason to pull out the Move kit again I’d give Zindagi’s latest here the thumbs up.