Mace: The Dark Age

Mace: The Dark Age's graphics were praised by many critics.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

In the 12th century, a collection of nations called the Covenant of Seven send their best warriors to kill Asmodeus, a practitioner of the dark arts who wields the fabled Mace of Tanis. The Mace is imbued with necropotic energy, offering those who wield it a tantalizing promise of ever-lasting life and unbridled power. Leaders from the East sense that Asmodeus is plotting and send their own warriors to eliminate him before it is too late.[9]

The game is similar to Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. and the Mortal Kombat series. Like in Mortal Kombat, when a character wins both rounds, they can perform an execution move on the enemy.

Similar to its contemporary Dead or Alive, in lieu of ring-outs Mace: The Dark Age has arenas which are surrounded by dangerous terrain, causing damage to any character who goes out of bounds.[10] An evade button allows characters to step backward or forward into the 3D environments.[9]

• Al' Rashid: The master assassin of the Desert Wind, hired by one of the Seven to bring back the Mace of Tanis. He is armed with twin scimitars, said to be forged by the very desert wind itself.
• Mordos Kull: A legendary mercenary who spent his orphaned youth thinking of revenge against the Seven for killing his family. He is armed with a morning star flail and shield.
• Koyasha: A young female ninja seeking to kill Asmodeus and test her skills as a master of the art of ninjutsu. She is armed with two straight knives.
• Lord Deimos: Hundreds of years old, in the Lands of Hell the Red Spiked Devil Knight Lord Deimos rules his people with an iron fist. A member of the Covenant of Seven, he seeks to usurp power to expand his kingdom. He is armed with a large, two-handed flamberge sword with a fiery blade.
• Namira: The lost princess-of-Tulwara-turned-vengeful-harem-girl, Namira mastered the deadly art of scimitar fighting from a court eunuch. She is armed with a single scimitar.
• Ragnar Bloodaxe: The Viking Prince of Torsgard, his village was destroyed by the power-hungry Deimos. He seeks revenge and hopes the Mace can restore his beloved land. He is armed with two single-handled axes, one in each hand.
• Takeshi Tsunami: A noble samurai and son of the Japanese emperor, Takeshi has been trusted to prevent the evil power of the Seven from spreading to Japan. He also seeks his lost brother Ichiro. He is armed with a long sword.
• Taria de Castillo: An evil sorceress and the daughter of one of the Covenant of Seven. She aspires to become a demoness and conquer hell itself. She is armed with a straight sword in one hand and a dagger in the other.
• The Executioner: A freelance torturer who seeks the ultimate power for himself, and a new weapon to inflict pain with. He is armed with a large executioner's axe. His "Axe Hook" attack was nominated for The Golden Bandage Award in Nintendo Power Awards '97.[11]
• Xiao Long: Disowned and blinded by his father, Xiao was raised by monks and taught to master the Spirit Sense. He vows to destroy evil in all forms, beginning with the Mace. He is armed with a bo staff.

Secret characters:

• Asmodeus: Only playable through a cheat cartridge. He is the final boss which other characters must defeat, in order to claim the Mace of Tanis.
• Grendal: A tormented soul trapped in the body of an obsidian gargoyle, Grendal is forced to do the bidding of Asmodeus. He is the twin brother of Taria, who his father believed was the demonic offering he was supposed to offer to maintain his grip on Iberia. He is armed with a stone-clad war hammer.
• Ned the Janitor: A skin change of Xiao Long to look like a janitor. He replaces Xiao Long on the character select screen through a cheat code.[12] He is armed with a push broom.
• Ichiro Tsunami: A corrupted samurai looking to take his father's throne in Japan and destroy his brother Takeshi. Like his brother, he is armed with a long samurai sword.
• Pojo: The Fighting Chicken, transformed by Countess Taria into something more than human, a force powerful enough to rend the very cosmos in her powerful beak. Pojo wages a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the feathered way.
• Spanky: A dummy used for practice. Spanky can only be accessed in the practice menu.
• Warmech: Gar Gunderson, master craftsman of the dwarves, pilots a mighty machine built to fight for his people against the tyrannical rule of Lord Deimos. His name in the life bar appears as Gar.
• Hell Knight: Unlocked on the N64 by default and is a time-bomb release character in the arcade. A minor demon sent to kill Asmodeus and return the Mace of Tanis back to Hell. He is armed with two hellish axes.
• Sir Dregan: Unlocked on the N64 by default and is a time-bomb release character in the arcade. An undead Crusader and member of the Covenant of Seven, he has turned his back on Asmodeus to learn the whereabouts of his lost soul. He is armed with a straight sword and a shield.

Mace: The Dark Age took roughly two years to develop.[13] The developers created 30 characters, then narrowed them down to a lineup of 11 through focus groups of teenagers.[10] The latest motion capture technology was used during the game's development.[14] A member of the Atari team who happened to be in the Society for Creative Anachronism did all the motion capture acting.[10]

The game was originally released on the arcade machines using the 3Dfx Voodoo graphics card,[6] the same technology powering San Francisco Rush.[15] The 3Dfx technology was cheaper to develop for than a proprietary system, and Atari used the savings to sell the game at a lower cost to arcade operators.[16]

Besides the Nintendo 64 port, a PlayStation version of the game was also planned but never released.[17]

Mace: The Dark Age was praised mainly because of its graphics. It was also noted for stage interactions with things such as water, and damaging areas such as lava. Next Generation reviewed the arcade version, stating that "Detail and depth on the order of a Virtua Fighter take years of development and practice, and Atari Games has a good start. Mace is a beautifully designed game with attractive characters and bodes well for Mace II."[4] Electronic Gaming Monthly later commented that "If your local arcade had this machine in, then you probably took a close look at it at one point or another. ... It is clearly one of the most visually impressive fighting games around, boasting smooth animations and large, colorful characters."[3]

The majority of reviewers credited Mace as the best N64 fighting game at the time of its release, while openly acknowledging that the pool of good fighting games available for the N64 at the time was quite shallow.[5][7][19][8] For example, Next Generation stated that "The best fighter to hit Nintendo 64, Mace: The Dark Age, would still get pounded into the ground by any PlayStation or Saturn fighter game."[19] However, Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot considered it inferior to the earlier N64 fighter Dark Rift, saying it "looks fantastic but still plays poorly."[6] This was a common lament, as critics widely agreed that the game's graphics are excellent[5][6][7][8] but the gameplay is mediocre due to issues such as uninteresting moves[5][6] and rough controls.[5][7] Kelly Rickards of Electronic Gaming Monthly elaborated, "The combos, while cool to look at (like everything else in this game), don't flow smoothly and only seem to work when much flail action is being performed. The whole feel of the control interface seemed to be locked in a yesteryear-zone, back when the 3-D fighting game pioneers were still perfecting their art."[5]

Critics did praise the arena designs, particularly the interactive objects and danger zones,[5][7][19][8] with GamePro, one of the few to give Mace a wholly positive review, applauding the "dynamic details that not only look great but add to the fun and playability of the game."[8] Some also complimented the fatalities,[5][6][8] while opinions on the soundtrack were wildly divergent. IGN and GamePro both remarked that it fit the mood of the game well,[7][8] while Next Generation called it "awful"[19] and Gerstmann said it was simply "decent".[6] The quality of the conversion from arcade to N64 was considered good by most reviewers,[5][6][8] though a number of them complained of bad frame rates.[5][7][19] According to Matt Casamassina of IGN, "Possibly because of the attention to detail, character animation is sometimes choppy and, because of that, gameplay suffers."[7]

In 2011, Complex included it on the list of ten "most blatant Mortal Kombat ripoffs", adding, "If anything, it was like a more brutal version of Soul Edge."[20]

The arcade release was a commercial success.[16]

• Official website
• Mace: The Dark Age at the Killer List of Videogames
• Mace: The Dark Age at MobyGames
• Mace: The Dark Age at GameFAQs