Gladiator

Released: 1986

Pitch: Hack and slash your way through a castle full of enemies.

Gladiator is weird game. It starts with your character auto-walking. You can attack high, mid, and low with your sword and defend the same way with your shield. You will need the shield primarily at the beginning to defend against flying fire balls. Then you'll fight a series of other gladiator dudes (and perhaps the occasional dudette), knocking some of their armor off depending on where you hit them, and finally killing them. But the same can happen to you. It's a slow, weird game indeed.