> My friend is looking for this old NES/Famicom game he used to play back in China
> a long time ago.
>
> Supposedly it is a side scroller like Mario, has over 100 levels but no save
> feature of any kind, and the character fights with a sword...
>
> I was thinking of Gaunlet but it's not a scroller. I'm not even sure if the game
> was released in the States.
>
> Let me know if you have any ideas..
>

Was the main character female? If it was, I'm thinking Athena.