Based on the 1988 film of the same name, Willow is a platform action game developed by Capcom and distributed into arcades in 1989. The intro says: “A magnificent fantasy filled with love, friendship and adventure!“, but in reality the game is a violent hack-and-slash ’em up, and is some distance from “love, friendship and adventure”…

You initially play as Willow (played by Warwick Davis in the film), and later as Madmartigan (played by Val Kilmer in the film). Willow fires magic bolts, and Madmartigen uses his sword. The action is mostly jumping, climbing and killing enemies, with the ultimate aim being: to save a baby from the clutches of the evil Queen, Baumorda, and her henchmen.

The biggest obstacle in the game is the fact that you only get one life. Your ‘Vital’ meter, shown in the top left-hand corner of the screen, gives you four hits, and if it’s depleted your only route forward is to put more credits in to continue the game (with your score reset). Thankfully, in the modern era of MAME, this means simply pressing a key/button for more credits, but back in 1989, having to put cold, hard cash into an obscure and unfair arcade machine – that only gave you one life – was the preserve of the very rich, and the very stupid.

Enemies come at you thick and fast; they drop down onto you from above with no warning, and they also fire arrows and throw axes at you, making survival extremely difficult. If you kill an enemy, it will drop a coin, and if you kill a boss, it’ll drop many coins. There are also chests that you can hit repeatedly for bonus money. Collecting cash is important for survival, because occasionally you’ll see an old dude, with crazy eyebrows, just standing there, and walking into him will reveal a shop from where you can buy upgrades. These include health re-fills; swords for extra damage; health extensions, and extra lives. The prices are pretty steep, though, so you really have to save up to buy the good stuff.

Oh, and if things weren’t difficult enough: the levels are also timed, and the limits are pretty tight, so you can easily run out of time, which means: game over… and “give the game more money” if you want to play on. Willow really is a cynical arcade game, when it comes to fairness…

The graphics and sound in Willow are pretty decent, being reminiscent of various Capcom action games of the late ’80s and early ’90s (like Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, Three Wonders and Tiger Road, for example), but the gameplay is extremely frustrating. There are some interesting sequences, like the horse and cart chase in the second level, but overall the game is just too difficult to be enjoyable. And the most frustrating thing about Willow is the fact that you can’t play the game cooperatively with a second player – the two-player game is ‘take it in turns with one life each’, which is a big missed opportunity.

If you like super-tough scrolling action games, then you might like Willow. Everyone else will likely be banging their head against a desk while playing it.

More: Willow (arcade game) on Wikipedia