 STEAM DRUNK! Hey, thanks to Kevin for requesting this on my Patreon page. Every so often, I like to look into the Steam library and take a look at a game that people more familiar with retro gaming might enjoy. I mean, most people subbed to this channel or into Super Nintendo stuff I would imagine, so let's take a look at Castle in the Darkness. Yeah, I know there's about a hundred games like this, with NES-styled graphics and sound design and all that, but what makes this game stand out? The thing about Castle in the Darkness is how simple the design is. It seems like a lot of these throwback retro-styled games take the layout and presentation of a typical NES game and add a ton of bells and whistles to it, like a gazillion weapons, an intricate magic system, a multi-tiered leveling system, all that good stuff, and that's totally fine, it works great in a lot of cases, but sometimes it can be a little much, and you just want to keep things a little more streamlined, and that's what Castle in the Darkness does well. Sure, there's a leveling system, upgradable gear and weapons, but the way it's structured makes it a lot simpler to manage. Because you're running to the right, killing everything that moves and collecting money, you come across these save points, you can save and refill your health, and you can manage your inventory. This is the only place where you can do this. That might seem like a needless, self-imposed limitation, like, hey, come on, I should be able to just access a giant menu and mess around with whatever I want, but like I said, there's already a million games like that, and I appreciate that this game took a different approach, and I think it's a significant difference because it makes the game feel less cluttered, it puts more of an emphasis on the platforming, and that brings me to another strength this game has. Castle in the Darkness is a very fast-paced game, in the best possible way. There's no wasted motion here, you pop in and out of rooms quickly, you move quickly, you die quickly, and you respawn quickly. Yeah, this game can get really freaking tough. Let me be clear though, there's some inventory management here, and there eventually are a ton of weapons you'll collect that you'll need to pick and choose before heading into each area, but it's not that big of a focal point, instead the focus is on the action, which is a good thing, because the game plays just as it looks here. You've played an NES action platformer like Mega Man or Ninja Gaiden, and you'll get the hang of this one pretty quickly. Another aspect that helps Castle in the Darkness stand out is the sheer number of branching paths. There are many different ways to get from point A to point B, and tons of areas to explore, just the volume of this game is impressive. On the surface it looks pretty simple, but there's a lot here, plus bear in mind you can also enter doors that appear in the background, but yeah, you'll spend a lot of time just exploring and backtracking, making it a great example of that overused term I've grown to loathe, Metroidvania. If there's any flaws with Castle in the Darkness, it's that sometimes it might be a bit too derivative, and I don't just mean the cutesy references to past NES games, that's cool and all, I mean in the actual level design itself, like this section here with the spinning gears and floating heads. In this case it's like the throwback references are actually holding the game back a bit in my opinion, but whatever. And yeah, like I said, there's a ton of backtracking here, that can get pretty old, but really that's not that big of a deal because like I said, this game cuts a pretty fast pace, and after all this game was made by just one guy, a fellow by the name of Matt Cap, the lead artist behind the binding of Isaac Rebirth. But yeah, Castle in the Darkness is a perfectly good game, on one hand this game feels and plays exactly like you'd expect based on how it looks, but on the other hand there's a little more beyond the surface with all the different paths and hidden areas you can discover, and while this game might seem too derivative at times, I really liked the streamlined approach where you only use the equipment menu at save points. Castle in the Darkness is worth adding to your wish list and would just waiting for it to go on sale. It's available for Windows and the price can go as low as $5. If you liked stuff like Shovel Knight or Mega Man 9, this one is worth checking out as well. It's a fast-paced action platformer with great music and a lot of replay value.