Mace: The Dark Age is a fighting video game released by Atari for arcade machines in 1997 and ported by Midway to the Nintendo 64 in 1997. 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. Methods included severing an opponent's limbs and torso (Al Rashid), beheading (The Executioner), repeated stabbing (Koyasha), impaling the opponent with a sword (Lord Deimos), breaking an opponent's back by hoisting them on top of a Viking helmet and throwing them to the ground, causing their body to explode (Ragnar), and some more far-fetched methods including pulling out an opponent's heart (Xiao Long), shrinking (Namira), transforming the opponent into a chicken (Taria), and entering an opponent's body and bursting them from inside (Dregan). Note: Heavily borrowing from the arcade game Soul Edge (1995)--first of the Souls Series. Which borrowed heavily from the framework WeaponLord (1995) laid out. Visual Concepts (developers of WeaponLord) would send builds of the game to Namco (the publisher of WeaponLord) to playtest.
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Mace does have two points in its favour, though. First are the graphics, which look great for the time. The 3D models for the characters are very well made, with detail in the model itself rather than pasting on photographs. The detail also extends into the stages, with impressive detail. On top of that, the stages aren’t just backdrop.
While it’s awkward to move around the stages, you can try to use the different layers to your advantage. Some stages even have hazards that cause damage. It creates a feeling that you’re actually fighting in a location, instead of fighting in an empty void with artwork pasted behind you.
As I’m not skilled at these kind of games, I’m not really sure how the fighting itself compares – it felt just like War Gods to me – but N64 Magazine rated it highly, so there must be something more to it.
Btw Lord Deimos is still one if the best characters in gaming history. Absolute badass.
Gameplay and performance make or break fighting games and Mace was average at best on these categories. CPU difficulty was unfair and added frustration to each playthrough the further you got on Arcade mode.