Castle Tintagel
by Pixelated Opus LLC | get it here
I'm pretty sure I picked up this game after one of the review quotes mentioned finally having a "serious action platformer" for the device. I figured, hey, I like action platformers!
...I might not like action platformers.
This game represents an alternate universe take on Arthurian legend, where Morgana attacks Camelot, slays King Arthur and vanquishes most of the Knights of the Round Table. You play as Sir Gawain—certainly the most well-known and beloved of Arthur's knights—who is one of the few survivors of the attack, and who must now cross the country and put an end to Morgana's evil.
Joining you on your adventure are Merlin and Gwenevere. And by "joining you" I mean "they're in the game". Gwenevere at least does assist you in taking out a boss in the first level, utilizing a mechanic so awkward that it's never seen again; Merlin, on the other hand, pretty much exists to explain why Gawain is able to cast spells now.
Gameplay largely consists of running, jumping, and swinging a sword at enemies, all of which are so slow and imprecise that the actual enemies on-screen are the least of your problems. This game is BRUTAL. I frequently found myself missing jumps and falling into pits or mistiming sword swings and taking damage from hitboxes which are absurdly huge and impossible to judge, which knock you backward and often lead to you taking more hits, which is devastating when healing is so rare. To make matters worse, these clumsy controls are your primary tools in navigating setpieces that feel like they come straight from the Kaizo Mario school of design. Some examples:
"Hey, there's a bug flying at you. You're running across disappearing platforms, so you don't have time to attack it without falling into the spike pit. You can try jumping it, but if you're a hair too early, you'll miss the next platform and fall into the spike pit. Sure, it's not entirely full of spikes, but you'll have to dodge them while also dodging the two enemies that will rush you from either side at the same time. And they'll stop right underneath you if you try to jump straight up to dodge them both at once."
"Okay, so ride this tiny little platform over the spikes, right? We've actually filled this spike pit the whole way this time, but don't worry about it. Anyway, this guy's going to chuck a boomerang at you when you get close. You can't block it because it will knock you backward off of the platform, so you have to jump it. But you have to jump forward because the platform is going to keep moving. Except, the platform is actually going to stop before it reaches where you expect it to reach. And once you've landed safely the boomerang is going to be on its way back."
You do get a few extra tools to help you out; for example, a shield you obtain halfway through the game can block and reflect projectiles (although you have to be on the ground to use it), and you are always finding an assortment of spells dotted all over (except you lose these if you die, so there's no guarantee you'll have any when you need them). There is also an item shop, where you can buy the following utilities:
- A single potion to increase your health from 5 to 6.
- A single potion to increase your magic from 5 to 6.
- A single potion to increase your total lives by 1, which is useless if you disable lives for accessibility.
- A chestplate that boasts "faster damage recovery". Despite being the most expensive item in the store, buying it doesn't seem to have a discernible effect on anything.
- A ring that increases your damage. This is purchased with a type of currency that is always present in the UI, but I never once found a single one of these things.
There are some settings to make this game easier, such as disabling player lives and weaker enemies, and I eventually switched all these on. Even then, many aspects of this game were still very frustrating. It's possible Pixelated Opus was catering toward a more old-school "get good" audience; it does feel like this is the kind of game I wouldn't have criticized so heavily as a kid, when games were more difficult in general and when I had far more patience and determination for this sort of thing. But now I'm old and a lot more picky about my fun, and I rarely felt like I was having much fun playing Castle Tintagel.
Aesthetically, the game is... fine. The character models are indistinct, while environments either feel too plain in some areas or too distracting in others. At one point, I was evaluating a jump and had to take a few moments to remind myself which part of the floor was the safe bit (the bottomless pit was looking pretty solid in that moment). The music is better; I wouldn't call it catchy, but it suits the mood and contains just the right amount of chiptune nostalgia.
As for crank mechanics, they're used very sparingly. The most interesting use I alluded to earlier (and subsequently insulted); Gwenevere aids you as you fight an ogre. When you weaken it with your sword, you need to tweak the crank slightly to line up Gwenevere's bow, at which point you can just mash B as fast as you can to get as many shots in as you're able to. Except the game only tells you about the crank; it never tells you that you're also responsible for firing the arrow afterwards. By the time you work it out you've lost valuable seconds to deal damage, meaning that Gawain will need to survive another round of clunky jumping and sword-swinging before Gwenevere gets a second chance.
Then later you use the crank a few times to move books back and forth for jumping, and once to raise a platform up like an elevator. None of this is something that couldn't be done with the D-pad.
Anyway, I know I've been exceedingly negative in this discussion, which feels incredibly unfair to a solo developer for whom this was clearly a labor of love. Pixelated Opus, if you happen to be reading this: keep doing your thing. My main frustration was that I didn't vibe with the combat, which is the exact same issue that soured me on Hollow Knight years ago. And Hollow Knight is near-universally beloved, especially for its combat, so I freely admit that I'm the one with the problem here. I honestly hope you found some players who love this game, and I'm sorry I can't be one of them.
And to everyone else, if you're the kind of person who does like Hollow Knight and want something similar on your Playdate, Castle Tintagel could actually be up your alley. You are certainly more qualified to evaluate it than I am, anyway. Best of luck!
- Gameplay: Medium-Low
- Presentation: Medium-Low
- Crankitude: Low
Verdict: On second thought, let's not go to Tintagel. It is a silly place.