King's Bounty is a turn-based fantasy video game created by Jon Van Caneghem and published by New World Computing in 1990. The game's story follows a hero who works for King Maximus to retrieve the Sceptre of Order from the forces of chaos, led by Arech Dragonbreath. King's Bounty is known as the first game in the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

A version of the game for the Sega Genesis was released in North America on February 21, 1991. This version included many changes to the graphics and added real-time exploration of the game world.

In 2008, a new game called King's Bounty: The Legend was released as a sequel. Later, more sequels were made, including King's Bounty: Armored Princess, King's Bounty: Crossworlds, King's Bounty: Warriors of the North, King's Bounty: Dark Side, and King's Bounty II.

Gameplay

The player guides the hero and their army across four continents to collect up to 25 pieces of a map that show the hidden location of the Sceptre of Order before King Maximus dies. Players can choose how to complete this task, which allows for different ways to play. For example, players do not need to collect all 25 map pieces. If they correctly find where the sceptre is buried before collecting all pieces, they win the game. If the sceptre is not found before King Maximus dies (the time depends on the game's difficulty), the game ends in failure. The location of the sceptre, special items, and the castles where villains live change randomly in each game, making it fun to play again.

The hero receives a weekly task from the king to find 17 villains across the four continents. Each time the hero defeats a villain's army, they earn a reward and a piece of the map that shows where the sceptre is buried. Along the journey, players find treasure chests that may give the hero new abilities, such as stronger magic or more money each week. Some chests contain one of eight special items, which also provide a map piece and unique powers.

As the player explores, they meet creatures native to each continent. Some creatures can be recruited to join the hero's army. These creatures are stronger than the regular soldiers the hero starts with and are needed to defeat tougher villains. However, keeping strong creatures costs more money each week. Players can increase their income by capturing and holding castles. If the cost of keeping creatures is higher than the money earned, the hero runs out of money, and their army leaves. Also, different army units have different relationships with each other. Units that dislike each other lower the army's morale, making them weaker in battle. Units that get along well increase morale, making the army stronger. Choosing the best mix of creatures is part of the game's challenge.

The game offers four hero classes: Barbarian, Knight, Paladin, and Sorceress. Each class has different abilities, starting strength, leadership, and weekly income. As the hero defeats more villains, their rank with the king increases. A higher rank allows the hero to recruit stronger troops and improves their abilities.

Combat happens when the hero attacks a castle or fights an enemy army on the map. Each turn, the player's army moves first, then the enemy's. Armies are grouped into stacks, with each stack taking up one space on the battlefield. A stack can be as small as one soldier or as large as thousands. Players can use spells during exploration or in battle. Exploration spells help move to towns, build bridges, find hidden locations, or create new armies. In battle, players can cast one spell each turn to attack enemies, heal troops, move units, or boost their strength.

Amiga

The game's graphics were completely redesigned by Bonita Long-Hemsath and Kenneth L. Mayfield. The hair and skin color of many characters were changed, and the sprites used to represent armies were also redesigned. Mouse support was added, allowing players to interact with most parts of the screen by clicking or moving the mouse over them.

King's Bountyfor Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

The Mega Drive/Genesis version of King's Bounty is very different from the PC version. The most noticeable change is the use of real-time movement. On the overworld map, armies now move automatically and attack the hero without needing player input. This makes the game more challenging, as players of the DOS version could often avoid multiple wandering armies without being attacked. The game's time limit has also changed. While it is now stricter, the difficulty is somewhat balanced because traveling across desert tiles no longer takes a full day, and moving between continents no longer ends the week.

This version of the game removes keyboard controls and the ability to name the hero. It uses the same improved graphics as the Amiga version. A small change is that wandering armies are now shown based on their strongest unit, instead of the generic units used in the DOS version that matched the current continent. The graphics remain a signature style of New World Computing, similar to other games like The Faery Tale Adventure, though these games have different gameplay.

King's BountyandHeroes of Might and Magic

King's Bounty is often seen as the inspiration for much of the gameplay in the Heroes of Might and Magic series. The Might and Magic series forms the story behind these games. Both series were created by New World Computing and designed by Jon Van Caneghem. Both games share similarities, such as a focus on developing heroes and different styles of combat. In the introduction to the player manual of Heroes III, Van Caneghem mentions that King's Bounty influenced the creation of Heroes of Might and Magic. King's Bounty is included in some collections of Heroes of Might and Magic games, such as the Heroes of Might and Magic Compendium and the Heroes of Might and Magic Millennium Edition.

The 2001 PlayStation 2 game, Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff, is an improved version of King's Bounty made by 3DO.

Successors

In 2007, the Russian company 1C Company bought the rights to the King's Bounty game series. They gave the name to a game being made by Katauri Interactive, a company in Kaliningrad. Before the name change, the game was called Battle Lord. It was released in 2008 as King's Bounty: The Legend.

In 2009, a new game called King's Bounty: Armored Princess was released. It used the same software (engine) as The Legend, but added a new main character and small new features.

In 2010, an expansion for Armored Princess was released as a separate game called King's Bounty: Crossworlds. This included the Orcs on the March expansion, two new story campaigns, and a game editor.

In 2012, King's Bounty: Warriors of the North was released. It used the same engine as earlier games but introduced new characters, units, and a new story. In 2014, a downloadable content pack called Ice and Fire was added to the game. This content included new locations, creatures, and a new skill system for creatures.

In 2014, another game called King's Bounty: Dark Side was released. In this game, players control the dark side and fight against the light side.

In 2021, a direct sequel to King's Bounty: The Legend called King's Bounty II was released.

Fan projects

An unofficial follow-up game, often named "King's Bounty 2," was created in 1992. The game was developed by Sergiy Prokofiev, a programmer from Ukraine. All text in the game is written in Russian, and the messages include stories and traditions from Russia. No version of the game in English has ever been released.

In August 2015, a new game titled "Royal Bounty HD" was launched. This game included many features from the Heroes of Might and Magic series, improving the gameplay of the original King's Bounty concept.

In 2015, a free version of the original game was released. This version kept the original graphics and added more details to the story. It was created by Sergei Markoff, a Russian programmer who also made the free SmarThink chess engine. The game includes hidden surprises, jokes about science, and extra items such as the Titan of Braavos.

King's Bountyboardgame

Task Force Games released a King's Bounty board game in 1991. The goal of the game is to catch villains in a fantasy setting, similar to its computer game version. However, the villains in the board game have different names, and three designers, not including Van Caneghem, are credited for creating the game. The cover art of both the computer game and the board game is the same, suggesting a connection between the two versions.

During the short time that Task Force Games was owned by New World Computing, the two companies tried to release a board game and computer game at the same time for the first time. However, the two versions of King's Bounty were released about 9 months apart. After New World Computing sold Task Force Games to John Olsen, a former vice president of Games Workshop, the computer game version was later renamed Heroes of Might & Magic to avoid confusion between the two games, which had different designers. Task Force Games kept the original name because the idea came from them and the board game designer. Task Force Games never released a second version of the King's Bounty board game. The cover art was created by a regular artist who worked for Task Force Games.

Reception

Computer Gaming World's reviewer noted that even though the game was short (he completed it in six hours), the limited time, exciting battles, and chance to gain power made it appealing to adventurers. The game was reviewed in 1991 in Dragon #166 by Jager McConnell in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers awarded the game 3 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the Sega Genesis version of the game in Dragon #175, also giving that version 3 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the DOS version of the game in 1992 in Dragon #187, again giving that version 3 stars. Later, Sega-16.com reviewed the game and, because of its influence on the Heroes of Might and Magic series, gave it a perfect 10.0 score.

Reviews

• Raze (October 1991)
• Amiga Power (October 1991)
• Raze (November 1990)
• Consoles Plus (September 1991)
• Mean Machines (June 1991)
• Joker Verlag Presents: Special Edition (1992)
• Amiga Joker (September 1991)
• Commodore Format (November 1990)
• Video Games (June 1991)
• Tilt (September 1991)