Cover art that over sold the experience

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The box looked awesome, didn't it? Oh dear...

Barbarian/Death Sword (Commodore 64, Amiga etc, 1987)

Box art suggests: A Page 3 Girl (Maria Whittaker) in a teeny, tiny bikini, with macho muscles and weapons for the hero (played here by Wolf from Gladiator). All set in a backdrop apparently borrowed from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The reality: Hand-drawn sprites crudely representing both muscle-man and bikini girl. And yes, her bikini is tiny, but '20 pixels big' wasn't quite the kind of skimpy we had in mind.

"Thanks, Big Boy," she says at the end. Er... no problem, love. Oh, by the way, have you got Maria's phone number?

Above: The promise of a poster was the clincher for many a red-blooded teenager. At least that one didn't disappoint

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Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.

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