Castle In The Darkness Review

Hey! You! How are ya? Ready for another review? I hope so cause that’s what’s going on here.

Castle In The Darkness is one of them modern retro style games. Or is it a retro style modern game? Both? Maybe? I dunno.

Anyway. There’s some folks out there making some pretty good games today (modern) that are in the style of the games of yesterday (retro). How’s that? Perfect.

Castle In The Darkness is an action adventure game in which we play the lone surviving soldier after an evil wizard makes his reappearance and takes out his vengeance on the kingdom. There’s your story. Simple and to the point.

Gameplay takes the form of a side scrolling platformer with action and adventure and exploration. We take control of our plucky little hero and go off to save the kingdom with swords and magic and talents. The game is segmented out into different areas each with their own design, challenges, treasures, and threats.

Each of those ares usually comes with a mini boss and end level boss to give you a pretty good time too.

Kind of like them old retro games, ya know?

Overall the gameplay is pretty good but I have an issue with this game, surprise surprise, like I do with other retro game style moderns.

The game is brutal when it comes to instant death. Spikes, traps, pits… they’re all over the place. Now. It was not uncommon back in the day that games would have stuff like that. Think Castlevania and Mega Man and stuff like that. But much like Mega Man 9 it feels more like it was designed by someone that was told about those games than actually played them. I’m sure that’s not the case but that’s just my feelings about the situation.

It’s a challenger, usually fair, but if you’re not ready to die – and die often – you’re probably not going to have a great time with the game.

Graphics the game does stick with that retro vibe. Kind of 8 bit but like… advanced. Not quite 16. Maybe 12 bit. Maybe even 14. Sprites are nice and crisp, detailed but not ridiculous. Simple but not basic. Know what I mean? They’re good. That’s the point.

Music? Same as above. But there is something I need to talk about when it comes to these retro style games. I’ve probably talked about it in a review before. Here’s the thing… I appreciate when a designer takes all the time and effort to make a game look and feel like it’s 20+ years old, but then they kind of lose that with the music. Shovel Knight does that, Melon Journey does it. They’re great games in terms of look and feel… but they don’t sound like they belong on the platforms the game was designed for. Know what I mean? If you make an 8 bit looking game, make as 8 bit sounding game.

That all said, the music in this game is very good and I enjoy a lot of it. There are some bangers… as the young people say.

I enjoy the heck out of this game and at the time I am writing this review there is a sequel in the works and I sure will be playing it when it comes out.