such a low pixel resolution". Release Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was first unveiled in North America as part of the 1989 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada and was displayed with other games to be released later that year by Acclaim. It was mentioned as a future game in the May 1989 premiere issue of video gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. It was also covered in GamePros premiere issue in May 1989. Finally, it was previewed by Nintendo Power in its July–August 1989 issue. For the game's cover, Acclaim hired Italian male model Fabio Lanzoni to pose as Kuros; Fabio was presented on the cover bare-chested and without armor. When Zippo Games saw the image of the cover a week prior to its release, they were perplexed. According to Ste Pickford, "Our jaws hit the floor when we first saw this image (which was, being merely the developers, probably about a week before the game's release). Why on earth did they choose a photograph of a bare-chested barbarian to promote a game starring a knight in shining armour?". Pickford added that "We used it as an example of the lack of imagination of Americans", while suggesting that having an actual suit or armor would be too costly to use for a photo shoot. Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was released by Acclaim for the NES in North America in December 1989 and in Europe and Australia in 1991. It managed to sell about 500,000 copies in North America and about 50,000 copies in Europe. Following the game's release, Zippo Games would proceed to develop its next game for Rare, Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship; they would eventually also release the third installment in the Wizards & Warriors series, Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power. The television advertisement consisted of a boy who is shown playing the first Wizards & Warriors game when a Conan the Barbarian-lookalike enters his room after having defeated a monster and hands him a copy of Ironsword. After describing the brief plot and shortly showing clips of the game, the Conan-lookalike leaves his room while exclaiming, "The fate of the world is in your hands! Back vile beast!". At the end of the commercial, after briefly playing Ironsword, the boy opens the door in his room, only to find his dog, who now has smoke coming from his behind.