NES video game similar to Wizards & Warriors [duplicate]

Question

Some time in the second half of the 1980s, I remember playing a video game on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and for many years I had thought the game was Wizards & Warriors II. There had been a short article about it in one of my friend's issues of Nintendo Power, so I think we decided to rent it for a weekend. However, since I have seen gameplay videos of Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, I realize that it must have been a different game—although the gameplay was similar.

As I said, my recollection is that this was an NES game from the later part of the 1980s, probably a year or two after the 1987 release of the original Wizards & Warriors. However, since my memory is apparently not reliable, it is conceivable that we actually played this game several years later in the 1990s on the SNES.

What I remember of the side-scrolling gameplay was that it was similar to Wizards & Warriors, featuring a character armed with a sword, fighting their way through various environments. I think there was less platforming and exploration than in Wizards & Warriors, making this game more like, say, Rastan. The advancement was divided into sub-levels (along the lines of those in the NES Ninja Gaiden), and I think that at the end of each sub-level, there was a (not too difficult) mini-boss. Then, after completing the two to four sub-levels that made up a full level, there was a much more difficult boss fight. The bosses got their own screens where they were fought; I think the environment in these boss arenas was just flat ground with a black background (or maybe just dark, with the scenery only faintly visible) behind the combatants. Of the bosses (or maybe mini-bosses) over the first few levels, I think there was one that was mostly blue and appeared to use lightning attacks. Another one was a golem-like stone figure, and you had to hit it when it exposed its pink brain in its midsection to do damage.

Answer 1

While I was watching a YouTube video of someone playing through Swordmaster (as suggested by FuzzyBoots), the top suggestion for another video to watch was of the NES version of Astyanax, which turned out to be what I was looking for. I had played (mostly via emulation) the arcade version of The Astyanax, a lot, but I had entirely forgotten about the NES version. (In fact, I think this is also the answer to another question I asked relatively recently—about what I was almost positive was actually an SNES game.) There are some general similarities in the gameplay, including the feature that the protagonist's axe charges up when he doesn't swing, making his chops more powerful when he finally executes them, but the details of the game levels are entirely different.

Here is the beginning of the Nintendo Power article, from the March/April 1990 issue.

As I remembered, the levels are split into sub-levels (each with a miniboss at the end), and as the game goes on the number of sublevels increases. The first level has just 1–1, then the first main boss; the second level has 2–1 and 2–2 before you fight the second main boss. And, as I remembered, the bosses are fought on separate screens, with the combatants facing off on the ground, against a solid black background.

Here is the third main boss, pretty much exactly as I remember him.

Answer 2

Might it be Swordmaster?

The Sword Master is a knight who was summoned into a kingdom in order to defeat an evil wizard and powerful demon which he summoned. The game follows the knight as he marches through forest, village, and all around the enemy's castle, until both the wizard and the demon are destroyed.

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The player must use sword and shield to battle through 7 game levels, from the forest, to a cursed town, to multiple levels of the villain's castle lair. The player encounters giant bats, wolves, skeleton warriors, evil knights, wizards, barbarians, lizard men, gargoyles, and other fierce enemies on his quest. The Sword Master can swing his sword, defend with his shield, and gather power-ups which enable him to change his form. For example, the Sword Master can transform into a mage and cast offensive magic spells.