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Barbarian (computer game)
Encyclopedia
Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior is a video game first released for Commodore 64
personal computer
s in 1987; the title was developed and published by Palace Software
, and ported to other computers in the following months. The developers licensed the game to Epyx
, who published it as Death Sword in the United States. Barbarian is a fighting game
that gives players control over sword-wielding barbarians. In the game's two-player mode, players pit their characters against each other. Barbarian also has a single-player mode, in which the player's barbarian braves a series of challenges set by an evil wizard to rescue a princess.
Instead of using painted artwork for the game's box, Palace Software used photos of hired models. The photos, also used in advertising campaigns, featured bikini-clad Maria Whittaker
, a model who was then associated with The Sun
tabloid's Page Three topless photo shoots. Palace Software's marketing strategy provoked outrage in the United Kingdom; protestors focused on sexual aspects of the packaging rather than decapitations and other violence within the game. The ensuing controversy boosted Barbarians profile, helping to make it a commercial success. Game critics were impressed with its fast and furious combat, and dashes of humour. The game was Palace Software's critical hit; boosted by Barbarians success, Palace Software expanded its operations, publishing other developers' work. In 1988, the company released a sequel, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
.
that supports one or two players. Players assume the roles of sword-wielding barbarians, who battle in locales such as a forest glade and a "fighting pit". The game's head-to-head mode lets a player fight against another or the computer in time-limited matches. The game also features a single-player story mode, which comprises a series of plot-connected challenges.
Using joysticks or the keyboard, players move their characters around the arena, jumping to dodge low blows and rolling to dodge or trip the opponent. By holding down the fire button and moving the controller, players directs their barbarian to kick, headbutt, or attack with his sword. Each barbarian has 12 life points
, which are represented as 6 circles in the top corners of the interface. A successful attack on a barbarian takes away one of his life points (half a circle). The character dies when his life points are reduced to zero. Alternatively, a well-timed blow to the neck decapitates the barbarian, killing him instantly. A goblin
enters the arena, kicks the head, and drags the body away.
If the players do not input any commands for a time, the game attempts a self-referencing
action to draw their attentions: the barbarians turn to face the players, shrug their shoulders, and say "C'mon". The game awards points for successful attacks; the more complex the move, the higher the score awarded. A score board displays the highest points achieved for the game.
hired Steve Brown as a game designer and artist. He thought up the concept of pitting a broom-flying witch against a monster pumpkin, and created Cauldron and Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back. The two games were commercial successes and Brown was given free rein for his third work. He was inspired by Frank Frazetta
's fantasy paintings to create a sword fighting game that was "brutal and as realistic as possible". Brown based the game and its characters on the Conan the Barbarian
series, having read all of Robert E Howard's stories of the titular warrior. He conceptualised 16 moves and practiced them with wooden swords, filming his sessions as references for the game's animation. One move, the Web of Death, was copied from the 1984 sword and sorcery
film Conan the Destroyer
. Spinning the sword like a propeller, Brown "nearly took [his] eye out" when he practiced the move. Playing back the videos, the team traced each frame of action onto clear plastic sheets laid over the television screen. The tracings were transferred on a grid that helped the team map the swordplay images, pixel by pixel, to a digital form.
Feeling that most of the artwork on game boxes at that time were "pretty poor", Brown suggested that an "iconic fantasy imagery with real people would be a great hook for the publicity campaign." His superiors agreed and arranged a photo shoot, hiring models Michael Van Wijk
and Maria Whittaker
to pose as the barbarian and princess. Whittaker was a topless model, who frequently appeared on Page Three of the tabloid, The Sun
. She wore a tiny bikini for the shoot while Van Wijk, wearing only a loincloth, posed with a sword. Palace Software also packaged a poster of Whittaker in costume with the game. Just before release, Palace Software discovered that fellow developer Psygnosis
was producing a game also titled Barbarian
, albeit of the platform genre
. After several discussions, Palace Software appended the subtitle "The Ultimate Warrior" to differentiate the two products.
and in the months that followed, most other home computers. These machines were varied in their capabilities, and the software ported
to them was modified accordingly. The version for the 8-bit ZX Spectrum
s was mostly monochromatic; it displayed the outlines of the barbarians against single-colour backgrounds. The sounds were reproduced with a lower sampling rate
. Conversely, the Atari ST
version, which had 16- and 32-bit buses, presents a greater variety of backgrounds and slightly higher quality graphics than the original version. Its story mode also pits 10 barbarians against the player instead of the usual 8. Digitised sound samples are used in the Atari ST and 32-bit Amiga
versions; the latter also features digitised speech. Each fight begins with the announcement of "Prepare to die!", and metallic sounding thuds and clangs ring out as swords clash against each other. After the initial releases, Barbarian was re-released several times; budget label Kixx published these versions without Whittaker on the covers. Across the Atlantic, video game publisher Epyx
acquired the license to Barbarian, releasing it under the title Death Sword, as part of their "Maxx Out!" video game series.
magazine received letters from readers and religious bodies, who called the image "offensive and particularly insulting to women" and an "ugly pornographic advertisement". Chris Jager, a writer for PC World
, considered the cover "a trashy controversy-magnet featuring a glamour-saucepot" and a "big bloke [in leotard]". According to Palace Software's co-founder Richard Leinfellner, the controversy did not negatively affect Barbarian, but boosted the game's sales and profile tremendously. Video game industry observers Russell DeMaria and Johnny Wilson commented that the United Kingdom public were more concerned over scantily clad Whittaker than the gory contents in the game. Conversely, Barbarian was banned in Germany by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien
for its violent contents. The ban forbade promotion of the game and its sale to customers under the age of 18. Barbarians mix of sex and violence was such that David Houghton, writer for GamesRadar
, said the game would be rated "Mature" if it was published in 2009.
Reviewers were impressed with Barbarians gory gameplay. Zzap!64s Steve Jarratt appreciated the "fast and furious" action and his colleague Ciaran Brennan said Barbarian should have been the licensed video game
to the fantasy action film Highlander
(which had a lot of swordfights and decapitations) instead. Amiga Computing
s Brian Chappell enjoyed "hacking the foe to bits, especially when a well aimed blow decapitates him." Several other reviewers express the same satisfaction in lopping the heads off their foes. Although shocked at the game's violence, Antic
s reviewer said the "sword fight game is the best available on the ST." According to Jarratt, Barbarian represented "new heights in bloodsports". Equally pleasing to the reviewers at Zzap!64 and Amiga User International
s Tony Horgan was the simplicity of the game; they found that almost anyone could quickly familiarise themselves with the game mechanics, making the two-player mode a fun and quick pastime.
Although the barbarian characters use the same basic blocky sprites, they impressed reviewers at Zzap!64 and Amiga Computing with their smooth animation and life-like movements. Reviewers of the Amiga version, however, expressed disappointment with the port for failing to exploit the computer's greater graphics capability and implement more detailed character sprites. Its digitised sounds, however, won praise from Commodore User
s Gary Penn. Advanced Computer Entertainment
s reviewers had similar thoughts over the Atari ST port.
In his review for Computer and Video Games
, Paul Boughton was impressed by the game's detailed gory effects, such as the aftermath of a decapitation, calling them "hypnotically gruesome". It was these little touches that "[makes] the game worthwhile", according to Richard Eddy in Crash
. Watching "the head [fall] to the ground [as blood spurts from the] severed neck, accompanied by a scream and satisfying thud as the torso tumbles" proved to be "wholesome stuff" for Chappell. The scene was a "great retro gaming moment" for Retro Gamer
s staff. The cackling goblin, which drags off the bodies, endeared him to some reviewers; the team at Retro Gamer regretted that the creature did not have his own game. The actions of the barbarian also impressed them to nominate him as one of their top 50 characters from the early three decades of video gaming.
Barbarian proved to be a big hit, and Palace started planning to publish a line of sequels. Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
was released in 1988, and Barbarian III was in the works. Van Wijk and Whittaker were hired again to grace the box cover and advertisements. After the success with Barbarian, Palace Software began to expand its portfolio by publishing games that were created by other developers. Barbarian, however, remained its most popular game, best remembered for its violent swordfights and Maria Whittaker.
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s in 1987; the title was developed and published by Palace Software
Palace Software
Palace Software was a British video game publisher and developer during the 1980s based in London, England. It was notable for the Barbarian and Cauldron series of games for 8-bit home computer platforms, in particular the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64...
, and ported to other computers in the following months. The developers licensed the game to Epyx
Epyx
Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983...
, who published it as Death Sword in the United States. Barbarian is a fighting game
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
that gives players control over sword-wielding barbarians. In the game's two-player mode, players pit their characters against each other. Barbarian also has a single-player mode, in which the player's barbarian braves a series of challenges set by an evil wizard to rescue a princess.
Instead of using painted artwork for the game's box, Palace Software used photos of hired models. The photos, also used in advertising campaigns, featured bikini-clad Maria Whittaker
Maria Whittaker
Maria Whittaker is a former English glamour model and Page Three girl.-Modelling career:Whittaker made her début as a Page Three girl in British newspaper The Sun in 1985, at the age of 16...
, a model who was then associated with The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
tabloid's Page Three topless photo shoots. Palace Software's marketing strategy provoked outrage in the United Kingdom; protestors focused on sexual aspects of the packaging rather than decapitations and other violence within the game. The ensuing controversy boosted Barbarians profile, helping to make it a commercial success. Game critics were impressed with its fast and furious combat, and dashes of humour. The game was Palace Software's critical hit; boosted by Barbarians success, Palace Software expanded its operations, publishing other developers' work. In 1988, the company released a sequel, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax is a video game first published in 1988 for various home computers. It was also released as Axe of Rage in North America. The game is the sequel to Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior , which was published in 1987...
.
Gameplay
Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior is a fighting gameFighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
that supports one or two players. Players assume the roles of sword-wielding barbarians, who battle in locales such as a forest glade and a "fighting pit". The game's head-to-head mode lets a player fight against another or the computer in time-limited matches. The game also features a single-player story mode, which comprises a series of plot-connected challenges.
Using joysticks or the keyboard, players move their characters around the arena, jumping to dodge low blows and rolling to dodge or trip the opponent. By holding down the fire button and moving the controller, players directs their barbarian to kick, headbutt, or attack with his sword. Each barbarian has 12 life points
Health (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
, which are represented as 6 circles in the top corners of the interface. A successful attack on a barbarian takes away one of his life points (half a circle). The character dies when his life points are reduced to zero. Alternatively, a well-timed blow to the neck decapitates the barbarian, killing him instantly. A goblin
Goblin
A goblin is a legendary evil or mischievous illiterate creature, a grotesquely evil or evil-like phantom.They are attributed with various abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. In some cases, goblins have been classified as constantly annoying little...
enters the arena, kicks the head, and drags the body away.
If the players do not input any commands for a time, the game attempts a self-referencing
Self-reference
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding...
action to draw their attentions: the barbarians turn to face the players, shrug their shoulders, and say "C'mon". The game awards points for successful attacks; the more complex the move, the higher the score awarded. A score board displays the highest points achieved for the game.
Single-player story mode
In the single-player story mode, the player controls a nameless barbarian who is on a quest to defeat the evil wizard Drax. Princess Mariana has been kidnapped by Drax, who is protected by 8 barbarian warriors. The protagonist engages each of the other barbarians in single combat to the death. Overcoming them, he faces the wizard. After the barbarian has killed Drax, Mariana drops herself at her saviour's feet and the screen fades to black. The United States version of the game names the protagonist Gorth.Development
In 1985, Palace SoftwarePalace Software
Palace Software was a British video game publisher and developer during the 1980s based in London, England. It was notable for the Barbarian and Cauldron series of games for 8-bit home computer platforms, in particular the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64...
hired Steve Brown as a game designer and artist. He thought up the concept of pitting a broom-flying witch against a monster pumpkin, and created Cauldron and Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back. The two games were commercial successes and Brown was given free rein for his third work. He was inspired by Frank Frazetta
Frank Frazetta
Frank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media...
's fantasy paintings to create a sword fighting game that was "brutal and as realistic as possible". Brown based the game and its characters on the Conan the Barbarian
Conan (books)
The Conan books are sword and sorcery fantasies featuring the character of Conan the Cimmerian originally created by Robert E. Howard. Written by numerous authors and issued by numerous publishers, they include both novels and short stories, the latter assembled in various combinations over the...
series, having read all of Robert E Howard's stories of the titular warrior. He conceptualised 16 moves and practiced them with wooden swords, filming his sessions as references for the game's animation. One move, the Web of Death, was copied from the 1984 sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...
film Conan the Destroyer
Conan the Destroyer
Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...
. Spinning the sword like a propeller, Brown "nearly took [his] eye out" when he practiced the move. Playing back the videos, the team traced each frame of action onto clear plastic sheets laid over the television screen. The tracings were transferred on a grid that helped the team map the swordplay images, pixel by pixel, to a digital form.
Feeling that most of the artwork on game boxes at that time were "pretty poor", Brown suggested that an "iconic fantasy imagery with real people would be a great hook for the publicity campaign." His superiors agreed and arranged a photo shoot, hiring models Michael Van Wijk
Michael Van Wijk
Michael van Wijk , is a professional sportsman, bodybuilder, actor and TV presenter in the United Kingdom. van Wijk is most well known for his role as Wolf on British TV endurance sports game show Gladiators, a role he held for seven years, eight series...
and Maria Whittaker
Maria Whittaker
Maria Whittaker is a former English glamour model and Page Three girl.-Modelling career:Whittaker made her début as a Page Three girl in British newspaper The Sun in 1985, at the age of 16...
to pose as the barbarian and princess. Whittaker was a topless model, who frequently appeared on Page Three of the tabloid, The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
. She wore a tiny bikini for the shoot while Van Wijk, wearing only a loincloth, posed with a sword. Palace Software also packaged a poster of Whittaker in costume with the game. Just before release, Palace Software discovered that fellow developer Psygnosis
SCE Studio Liverpool
SCE Studio Liverpool is a video game development house head-quartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool, England. It is part of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. Founded in 1984 as Psygnosis, the company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment and...
was producing a game also titled Barbarian
Barbarian (Psygnosis)
Barbarian is a 1987 computer platform game by Psygnosis. It was first developed for the Atari ST, but eventually ported to other popular platforms of the home computer era...
, albeit of the platform genre
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
. After several discussions, Palace Software appended the subtitle "The Ultimate Warrior" to differentiate the two products.
Releases
Barbarian was released in 1987 for the Commodore 64Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and in the months that followed, most other home computers. These machines were varied in their capabilities, and the software ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to them was modified accordingly. The version for the 8-bit ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
s was mostly monochromatic; it displayed the outlines of the barbarians against single-colour backgrounds. The sounds were reproduced with a lower sampling rate
Downsampling
In signal processing, downsampling is the process of reducing the sampling rate of a signal. This is usually done to reduce the data rate or the size of the data....
. Conversely, the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
version, which had 16- and 32-bit buses, presents a greater variety of backgrounds and slightly higher quality graphics than the original version. Its story mode also pits 10 barbarians against the player instead of the usual 8. Digitised sound samples are used in the Atari ST and 32-bit Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
versions; the latter also features digitised speech. Each fight begins with the announcement of "Prepare to die!", and metallic sounding thuds and clangs ring out as swords clash against each other. After the initial releases, Barbarian was re-released several times; budget label Kixx published these versions without Whittaker on the covers. Across the Atlantic, video game publisher Epyx
Epyx
Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983...
acquired the license to Barbarian, releasing it under the title Death Sword, as part of their "Maxx Out!" video game series.
Reception and legacy
During the 1980s, the prevalent attitude was that video games were for children. Barbarians advertisements, showing a scantily dressed model known for topless poses, triggered significant outcries of moral indignity. Electron UserElectron User
Electron User was a magazine targeted at owners of the Acorn Electron microcomputer. It was published by Database Publications of Stockport, starting in October 1983 and ending after 82 issues in July 1990....
magazine received letters from readers and religious bodies, who called the image "offensive and particularly insulting to women" and an "ugly pornographic advertisement". Chris Jager, a writer for PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
, considered the cover "a trashy controversy-magnet featuring a glamour-saucepot" and a "big bloke [in leotard]". According to Palace Software's co-founder Richard Leinfellner, the controversy did not negatively affect Barbarian, but boosted the game's sales and profile tremendously. Video game industry observers Russell DeMaria and Johnny Wilson commented that the United Kingdom public were more concerned over scantily clad Whittaker than the gory contents in the game. Conversely, Barbarian was banned in Germany by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien
Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien
The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons is an upper-level German federal agency subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. It is responsible for examining media works allegedly harmful to young people and entering these onto an...
for its violent contents. The ban forbade promotion of the game and its sale to customers under the age of 18. Barbarians mix of sex and violence was such that David Houghton, writer for GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
, said the game would be rated "Mature" if it was published in 2009.
Reviewers were impressed with Barbarians gory gameplay. Zzap!64s Steve Jarratt appreciated the "fast and furious" action and his colleague Ciaran Brennan said Barbarian should have been the licensed video game
Highlander (video game)
Highlander was a video game tie-in to the Highlander franchise. It was released in 1986 by Ocean Software. It was not popular in magazine reviews. Sinclair User gave it two stars of five and called it "a golden turkey". Crash gave it an overall score of 57% and called it "totally boring and quite...
to the fantasy action film Highlander
Highlander (film)
Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action film directed by Russell Mulcahy and based on a story by Gregory Widen. It stars Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, and Roxanne Hart. The film depicts the climax of an ages-old battle between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and...
(which had a lot of swordfights and decapitations) instead. Amiga Computing
Amiga Computing
Amiga Computing was a monthly computer magazine of a serious nature, published by Europress and IDG in both the UK and USA. A total of 117 issues came out. The games section was called Gamer, although later Amiga Action was incorporated into the magazine and became the games section.- External...
s Brian Chappell enjoyed "hacking the foe to bits, especially when a well aimed blow decapitates him." Several other reviewers express the same satisfaction in lopping the heads off their foes. Although shocked at the game's violence, Antic
ANTIC (magazine)
Antic was the name of a home computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit computer line . Its ISSN is 0113-1141. It took its name from the ANTIC chip, which produced the Atari line's graphics. The first issue was published in April 1982. While it began as a bimonthly magazine, within a year it had...
s reviewer said the "sword fight game is the best available on the ST." According to Jarratt, Barbarian represented "new heights in bloodsports". Equally pleasing to the reviewers at Zzap!64 and Amiga User International
Amiga User International
Amiga User International was a monthly computer magazine published in its later years by AUI Limited, it was the first dedicated Amiga magazine in Europe and in comparison to other Amiga magazines, AUI had a more serious perspective...
s Tony Horgan was the simplicity of the game; they found that almost anyone could quickly familiarise themselves with the game mechanics, making the two-player mode a fun and quick pastime.
Although the barbarian characters use the same basic blocky sprites, they impressed reviewers at Zzap!64 and Amiga Computing with their smooth animation and life-like movements. Reviewers of the Amiga version, however, expressed disappointment with the port for failing to exploit the computer's greater graphics capability and implement more detailed character sprites. Its digitised sounds, however, won praise from Commodore User
Commodore User
Commodore User, known to the readers as the abbreviated CU, was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. A publishing history spanning over 15 years, mixing content with technical and games features...
s Gary Penn. Advanced Computer Entertainment
ACE (games magazine)
ACE was a multi-format computer and video game magazine first published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and later acquired by EMAP.-History:...
s reviewers had similar thoughts over the Atari ST port.
In his review for Computer and Video Games
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
, Paul Boughton was impressed by the game's detailed gory effects, such as the aftermath of a decapitation, calling them "hypnotically gruesome". It was these little touches that "[makes] the game worthwhile", according to Richard Eddy in Crash
CRASH (magazine)
Crash was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by Europress.-Development:...
. Watching "the head [fall] to the ground [as blood spurts from the] severed neck, accompanied by a scream and satisfying thud as the torso tumbles" proved to be "wholesome stuff" for Chappell. The scene was a "great retro gaming moment" for Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Although launched as a quarterly publication, Retro Gamers soon became a monthly...
s staff. The cackling goblin, which drags off the bodies, endeared him to some reviewers; the team at Retro Gamer regretted that the creature did not have his own game. The actions of the barbarian also impressed them to nominate him as one of their top 50 characters from the early three decades of video gaming.
Barbarian proved to be a big hit, and Palace started planning to publish a line of sequels. Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax is a video game first published in 1988 for various home computers. It was also released as Axe of Rage in North America. The game is the sequel to Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior , which was published in 1987...
was released in 1988, and Barbarian III was in the works. Van Wijk and Whittaker were hired again to grace the box cover and advertisements. After the success with Barbarian, Palace Software began to expand its portfolio by publishing games that were created by other developers. Barbarian, however, remained its most popular game, best remembered for its violent swordfights and Maria Whittaker.