I loved this game very much as a child. I loved the sense of urgency with the time quickly ticking down. It was quite minimalistic but that made all the individual elements stand out all the more: Finding the sword, the sinister Shadowman mentioned in the article, the green potion, the princess’s mouse saving you, that one fat guard who fights particularly well… Speaking of the guards, I loved how they all looked similar but still had very individual fighting styles. Also, I never knew Mechner used rotoscoping for the movements but it makes a lot of sense as they felt very realistic.
I also want to give a shoutout to the soundtrack and the sound effects, all of which were fantastic (I still remember the sound of those killer blades)!