Might and Magic (universe)

The Might and Magic logo from 1988-1999.

Might and Magic is a fantasy universe developed by New World Computing which began with the release of the first game in 1986. The main series expanded to 10 games, and it also spun off the hugely popular Heroes of Might and Magic series, as well as a number of other games set in the same universe. The title was no doubt influenced by Dungeons & Dragons, as was the fantasy setting, however, the series grew into its own as additional games were released, and the setting has a unique feel to it.

Personal

The first game I played from the series was Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra, which my brother got from a friend of his. I was extremely impressed by the game as it was far more impressive of an RPG than anything I had seen on my NES at the time. I ended up getting bored with the game, and made a couple other attempts to finish the game over the years, but was never interested enough to do so. I also remember seeing Clouds of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen on shelves at game stores, but I never bought them. Later, my friend Kevin bought the CD version of World of Xeen and we played the game a lot together. Years later, I bought a compilation software title which included Darkside of Xeen. I beat Clouds and played a fair amount of Darkside before getting bored. One thing that always bothered me was the terrible attempts at humor in the games which never made me laugh and always hurt immersion. I saw The Mandate of Heaven briefly at my brother's friend's house and thought it looked amazing. I watched my friend Eric playing Heroes of Might and Magic and thinking it looked pretty cool as well, but never played it myself. Later, while trying out old games, I played King's Bounty and noticed that it seemed an awful lot like Heroes, and later discovered it was what Heroes was based on. Although I still enjoy the game engine and the game's graphics and cheesy voice-acting, it's hard for me to sink the necessary time into these games anymore. Looking at later games in the series, it appears the the game has gone the Blizzard route and tried to make the universe "cool" to accommodate more players, so I doubt I'd find them enjoyable.

Status

I own the Ultimate Might and Magic Archives which contains the first five games in the series, as well as The Ultimate RPG Archives which contains games 4 and 5.

Works

Core Games

Released	Title	Platforms
1986-??-??	Might and Magic, Book One: Secret of the Inner Sanctum	Apple II, Commodore 64, FM-7, Macintosh, MS-DOS, MSX, NES, PC-8800, PC-9800, Sharp X1, Sharp X68000
1988-12-??	Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World	Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64, FM-7, Genesis, Macintosh, MS-DOS, MSX, PC-8800, PC-9800, Sharp X1, Sharp X68000, SNES
1991-??-??	Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra	Amiga, FM Towns, Macintosh, MS-DOS, PC-9800, SEGA CD, SNES, Super CD-ROM
1992-??-??	Might and Magic: Clouds of Xeen	FM Towns, MS-DOS, PC-9800
1993-??-??	Might and Magic: Darkside of Xeen	FM Towns, MS-DOS, PC-9800
1998-04-03	Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven	Windows
1999-06-08	Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor	Windows
2000-03-07	Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer	PlayStation 2, Windows
2002-03-29	Might and Magic IX	Windows
2014-01-23	Might & Magic X: Legacy	Macintosh, Windows

Other Games

• Arcomage
• Crusaders of Might and Magic
• Dark Messiah: Might and Magic
• Heroes of Might and Magic series
• Legends of Might and Magic
• Might and Magic (J2ME)
• Might and Magic (TurboGrafx CD)
• Might and Magic II (portable)
• Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
• Might & Magic: Heroes Kingdoms Asia
• Shifters
• Warriors of Might and Magic
• Warriors of Might and Magic (Game Boy Color)

Media

Logos

The logos used in the series help show how the game's style went from being historic with fantasy elements, to hardcore, almost cartoonish, fantasy. The second logo is the only one I saw when I was actively playing games from the series, and is also my favorite.

• 

  1986-1987 - Only used on the first game.

• 

  1988-1999 - Used on games 2-6. Started simply as a bold version of the original, but then gradients, textures, and 3D effects were used.

• 

  1999-2002 - Used on games 7 and 8.

• 

  2002-2014 - Used only on game 9.

• 

  2014-Today - Used only on game 10.

Links

   

• mightandmagic.fandom.com - Fan Wiki.