Classic Sega characters coming to Kingdom Conquest II

It’s been quite a while since we discussed Kingdom Conquest, SEGA’s action-strategy-MMO hybrid. Since then, the game has received a sequel, aptly named Kingdom Conquest II. Just like the first game, part II features a variety of gameplay styles all thrown into a pot and cooked together. One of those styles involves collecting monster cards to send into battle against monsters in neighboring lands.

SEGA will soon be releasing monster cards based on its classic franchises into Kingdom Conquest II in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis videogame console. The special cards feature artwork and characters from Altered Beast and Golden Axe, two arcade hits that are also available on iOS.

Game details

Kingdom Conquest II is a massively multiplayer online game. As such, it requires an internet connection to play. Luckily it supports both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connections.

The game consists of three basic components:

3D Dungeon battles: Team up with up to four players and enter dungeons in search of loot and monsters to kill. The dungeon battles closely resemble Monster Hunter and SEGA’s own Phantasy Star Online series. Players can choose from Swordsmen, Warrior, Mage, Saint, and Ninja character classes.

City building: After returning from the dungeon, you’ll work on fortifying and expanding your own stronghold. The city itself is rendered in 3D graphics, though the zoomed-out viewpoint looks much like what you’d see in 2D city building games. The buildings you construct will gather resources, house your troops, and much more.

Monster battling: The money and resources you gather can be spent to purchase random monster cards from the shop. Monsters can then be arranged into units under commanders and even bred with each other to become more powerful. Send monsters out into surrounding wilderness to clear it and expand your stronghold – or attack other players.

Mega Drive 25th Anniversary Card Giveaway

Kingdom Conquest II SEGA cards

The Golden Axe and Altered Beast cards will start appearing in the game as rare collectible cards on November 7th. To get them sooner, players can visit the official Kingdom Conquest II Facebook page and Twitter feed @KingdomConqGame. SEGA will be giving out codes that users can redeem in-game for the special cards.

Why the big deal? Altered Beast made waves as the original pack-in cartridge when the Sega Genesis debuted in America. It large, detailed sprites were amazingly close to the real arcade game. Players could transform from burly gladiators into various humanoid beasts like wolf and dragon. And no gamer can forget the grainy digitized voice of Zeus exclaiming “Rise from your gwave!”

As for Golden Axe, it too was a popular Genesis port of an original arcade game. Two players could cooperate as a team of barbarian, Valkyrie, or dwarf to hack and slash through hordes of vicious warriors. Golden Axe remains one of the best fantasy beat-em-ups of all time.

Prepare to collect and conquer

Kingdom Conquest II for iOS

Kingdom Conquest II is free to play. Its in-app purchases consists of Charge Points, which can be used to speed up building completion times and monster battles. Being a rather large and complex game, it takes some time to learn. SEGA fans, grab it now and prepare to hunt for the 25th Anniversary cards!

Paul Acevedo

Paul started writing about games in 2003 with his first strategy guide (Bomberman Land 2) for GameFAQs. He continued writing guides while earning his B.A. in Literature. When Windows Phone launched in late 2010, the Xbox integration lead our hero to jump on board the platform. He joined Windows Phone Central as Games Editor at the beginning of 2011, going on to review over 125 mobile Xbox titles over the years. He now leads Windows Central's Xbox One coverage, personally specializing in developer interviews, indie games, controllers and accessories, and Twitch broadcasts. Paul loves games on all platforms; he goes where the games are. Although very busy with console coverage, he sometimes contributes gaming articles to iMore and Android Central.