Overall 3.6 Graphics 2.3 Sound 2 Addictive 3 Story 1 Depth 2.7 Difficulty 8.7
1
The weakest game hero ever, and his game fares no better. NovemberJoy
Dark Castle. Sounds like an RPG, right? No, it isn't. But, I'm going to see how it stacks up as a puzzle-platformer.
Graphics:NES quality at best.
The game has about as much detail on sprites as your average NES game. In fact, the developers seem to have forgotten that they're working with a Genesis instead of an NES. Even the color palette, with a couple less colors, possibly no colors omitted, could be supported on the NES. In other words, this game fails epically in the graphics department.
-Little detail on anything
-Nothing looks like it belongs on the Genesis
-Color palette is severely lacking
Music+SFX:Like listening to a boy band. While the band members are on crack.
There's 2 music tracks in the entire game. I'm totally serious.
There are Commodore 64 games better than that! Plus, neither of the tracks are any good.
The sounds aren't much that stand out. They lack polish and number, just like the music.
-Music is awful
-There's only 2 tracks in the game
-SFX are few, and aren't any good either
Addictiveness:About as addictive as being punched in the face for a non-masochist.
This game is probably one of the only games on this Earth that didn't captivate me in the slightest. I would play and enjoy almost anything, and this game fails to deliver any enjoyment. I'll explain why in the Gameplay ratings.
-Probably the only game that doesn't captivate me that I've found
Story:The game designers don't care about it, and it shows.
The story is that you are Prince Duncan, and you are going to go into the Dark Castle and dethrone the Black Knight. Of course, the game never tells you this, so if you haven't gotten that information, have fun wondering why the heck you are doing this in the first place. Prince Duncan doesn't even seem to have a motive, other than overthrowing the Black Knight. Why is he going to do it? Does he want to be king? Is the Black Knight a tyrant? None of this is even explained.
-Story is cliché
-Story lacks any resemblance of detail
Depth:About as deep as a cup of water.
The game has 4 sets of levels. 2 of them are for upgrades, 1 of them is like a punishment stage that you get sent to if you decide to go there, or if you fall on certain levels, and 1 of them is the path to the Black Knight's throne room. That's IT. The levels aren't even that large.
-Only FOUR sets of levels? Come on, I've seen MSX and Commodore 64 games with more levels than that.
-Levels are small enough that an amateur programmer can make more levels than this in a cheap puzzle game in a few days. These people had months, if not a YEAR.
Gameplay:About as much fun as being tortured.
So, you start the game up. You get really awful-sounding music, and a title screen that is lazily made. When you start the game, you are prompted to select a difficulty and determine whether you want the music and sound on or off. That's just dandy, but all the difficulty settings do is double or triple the amount of holes that bats spawn out of, and increase the bonus points you get for finishing the level. That's it.
So, you decide to pick the level that is highlighted at the start. Congratulations, you picked the Trouble set of stages, the absolutely meaningless stages that only serve to hinder you. Plus, the levels are decently difficult, too.
So, you decide to play the next set of levels. You picked the Fireball stages, where you are supposed to get the Fireball upgrade. The stages aren't easy, and the fireballs are unnecessary to beat the game. Sure, they kill enemies that will get back up for good, and they will kill a certain enemy in the Black Knight stages, but otherwise, they're no better than what you start with. Oh, I forgot to mention that the weapon you start with is ROCKS. Yes, rocks. Why would you go into the castle with your only weapon being rocks?
I also forgot to mention our hero. His name was mentioned in the Story section, but he has one thing different from every other hero in existence...
He's about as fragile as glass. Almost everything kills him in one hit, falling twice his height will kill him, falling into water will kill him, trying to walk across a 1-inch drop will make him trip and become dizzy for a few seconds, yeah, he's weak. He's obviously too stupid to live if he tries to go into the Dark Castle with only a pocketful of rocks, his brains, and this kind of fitness. So, this game's gameplay is awful.
Oops, I almost forgot to mention the controls, as well. You use the A button to jump, the B button to duck(!), and the C button to throw rocks. The bad thing is that Duncan moves his arm to aim with the Up and Down buttons, and he does it as slowly as R.O.B. If you don't know what R.O.B. is, Google it. You can't jump straight up, either you have to make a full jump in whatever direction you're facing, or you can hold Up and do a forward jump that doesn't go as far. The jump that you do while holding Up is the only way to grab ropes, so have fun missing jumps. To pick up an item, you hold Down and press B. This applies to all items, no matter what they are, where they are, you still hold Down and press B.
I forgot to mention something else about the jumping. When you jump, if you don't land on a surface that's the exact same elevation as the one you were on before you jump, Duncan will do this stupid little pose, and then he will fall. This applies to dropping off things as well. This is bad in the game's platforming level, because you may find yourself in a position where if the platform you want to drop off of is going in the same direction as you want to drop off of, then you might land back on the platform you were on. Excellent programming, guys. Good job.
-Game has really, really awful controls
-Jumping is really badly thought out
-The stupid little pose you do in midair stops your momentum cold
-Aiming is slow and not very well thought out
-Enemies kill you in one hit, unless you have at least one of a certain item
-Items aren't needed to beat the game, so it has been beaten in under a minute
-Grabbing ropes is a bit harder than it should be
-Collision detection is really off
So, let's recap:
Pros:
None.
Cons:
Everything is flawed in this game.
What you should do if you own this game: If you have a cartridge of this game, go and chuck it into the nearest volcano.
If you have this game on Vizzed, sell it. You probably won't return to this game anytime soon.
Overall Rating:Terrible
Graphics 2 Sound 3 Addictive 1 Story 1 Depth 2 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 4.7/5
Submitted: 09-17-11
Updated: 09-17-11
Review Replies: 3
0.5
A horr(or)ible game. totaldramaman2
Oh crap, THIS game. Dark Castle on the... Genesis? Yeah, I had a hard time telling, because it looks like an NES game. Halloween is tommorow, so why not review a horror game? ...Because it's so crappy it beggs to be reviewed. So, I guess let's begin looking at this "game".
--- How stereotypical can it get? ---
So, like every other horror game, we get a rendition of Dracula's song, and this crow in a tree, and a castle up on a plateau... I hope that's what it is. So, you just randomly start out in the middle of a castle, with some guy going around in circles. So, there's two rooms with ?'s on them, a room with a diamond on it, and a sign that reads BK. If that means the Burger King is going to sing "What is Love" and get me lost in a fiery maze, I'M GOING IN! Now the game turns into a horrible platforming sidescroller. With bad jumping controls, not being able to jump on the ropes, and stereotypical enemies, it's your standard crappy horror game. Every game has BATS. Super Mario World, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and every horror game in existince. Then, look at that dragon. It looks like something that would be on a little girl's lunchbox. You know how I said that the game began with Dracula's theme? It's STILL playing. It's just like Ghostbusters on NES. The Ghostbusters theme plays the ENTIRE game. But Dark Castle allows you to turn of the music... or just pause it. When a note is playing, it FREEZES the note, and it NEVER stops. It doesn't make much of a difference, because it turns back on when you die. If this was an ACCAPTABLE game, it should turn off and STAY off.
--- SADDAM was here? ---
Apparentley. In one room, there's grafitti written on the wall. They read "Saddam was here" and "Gamers rule". So, appeantley, Saddam owns this castle, and he was a gamer... no wonder thers' a game based off his war in Action 52. So, I've come to the conclusion that the WORST thing about this game is the controls. Bad controls are honestley hard to explain, with th exeption of the "B" and "A" button swap on NES. The weapon is the rock from Friday the 13th and Bible Adventures, and the sword in Dragon's Lair. It deliberatley (usually goes over your target, but not in the same angle as usual bad aiming controls. Here, you slowly move your arm around, and finally throw the rock. Then the enemies come and swarm you while your trying to do this, like in Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. The stairs are like in CastleVania III. They're a major enemy. But in this game, you can't get off them, and you can't get on them either... I need to stop referencing other games. I keep missing the ropes. You don;t just fall, he stops in the middle of is jump, and falls down, while screaming like a metal singer.
--- Honestley, the controls are horrible. ---
Further explaining the bad controls, picking up the rock is Down+B. Did they think "Oh, well all the greal games like Mario and Zelda only require you to TOUCH the powerup. We should add pressing a combination of buttons to this formula." Now, I guess this okay, but considering you have to press Down+B to do a regular duck is horrible! Now, what button do you STAY ducking with? Usually the same button that you STARTED ducking with, but here, you have to switch from Down+B to Up+B. WHAT KIND OF LOGIC IS DUCKING WITH UP? It's like Superman on NES. You press down to go through doors. Okay, let's walk on a SLIGHTLY lower platform. Now the guy trips over. Well, I see how you would trip doing that, but getting DIZZY and spinning around is unbelivable. If you step over anything: a mousehole a lower platform, a rock, a DEAD PERSON, he trips and gets dizzy. He even gets dizzy when he falls one foot. WHAT A CLUMSY CRAPHOLE! How do you get dizzy from jumping off of a ROPE? Okay, this game is horrible. I simply can't take it anymore. My thumbs are bleeding from these controls. If my thumbs hurt, I rest my case here. I guess I'll see you in my next review.
Graphics 2 Sound 1 Addictive 1 Depth 2 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 10-30-11
Updated: 11-05-11
Review Replies: 14
6.8
Dark Castle Review - Is it a shame to like this game? Zircron Swift
Dark Castle for the Sega Mega Drive. I'll tell you one thing, this was a game I dreaded to play. When I saw the AVGN review, I could tell by looking at the game play it sucked, and sucked hard for that matter. Yet, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I feel compelled to complete really terrible games. Dr. Jeykll and My Hyde, Back to the Future, games that seemed unbearable I feel must be completed. Sometimes, it isn't worth the time and effort (GhostBuster for the NES....*shivers*), and I hardly get anything from it. This is one of those games. The game originated from 1986 when it was on Macintosh by Silicon Beach Software. From what I've heard, the game was highly credited for it's amazing music, smooth graphics and animations, and compelling and unique controls. Then there were some ports here and there, one coming to the Sega Mega Drive, and what do you know, it was said to be not only the worst port of the series, but one of the worst games ever created. Let's have a look, shall we?
The story is you are Duncan (sometimes it's "Prince Duncan", but I find that hard to believe), and you accedently volunteered to fight against the Black Knight, who has....killed a lot of chickens.....or drained the local lake to make coffee....or for that matter, is drinking too much coffee....or wants to over rule the entire world with.....his stuff....Whatever reason, it doesn't say, you are there to stop him. And out of all the hero's that went to defeat the Black Knight, of all the guys that can take a punch or can survive the onslaught of mice and bats gently getting to your face, you can to be the one to fight him. Duncan is most probably the weakest hero in video gaming history until proven otherwise. The proof is everywhere. Let me start the on-going list...
If you jump on some stairs, even if that stair is just one up from the ground, you'll tumble down the stairs and die instantly (which for the record, you'll normally be falling down a flight of 8 steps, enough to knock someone out in unlucky, but not kill unless if you land your head on a rock). If you so even touch anything classed as an enemy, you'll die. The very thought of fear will send him into a stressed state, and if they come so close and to about to touch him, he'll die from a double heart attack or something. The idea that the bats and mice have the plauge on them, and if they bite you, you'll get the plauge and die. But the plauge doesn't cause you to die in an instant! Is that's the case, why aren't the bats and mice dead already? Maybe Duncan is super allergic or something. Fall in water, you die. Fall from too great a height, you die. Walk into some brooms, you die. Touch some rocks on the ceiling, you die. Get hit by boulders, you die....oh wait, that's logical.
Let's continue with the actual levels, shall we? Much like in Mega Man, you can select what level you can go through. There are two doors with question marks on top of them to the left, in the middle there is one with BK on top, and to the right there is one with a shield on top. However, unlike Mega Man, it isn't very clear what doors they do, so let me help. The far left door is completely useless. It's call the Trouble Door. Enter it to make your way to the torture chamber, where there, you can collect a key to unlock the door you just entered to return to the level select room. Since you'll be seeing the torture chamber as many times you will be swearing in this game, and the only use of the torture chamber is to get out of there, the far right door is completely useless (unless you want to train your aim, I guess...).
The question mark door to the left of the BK room is known as the Fire Ball level. Go through all these levels and you'll get to use a Fire Ball. Pretty cool, eh? Well, it's not cool, it's hot! Readers these days....Oh, right, what I meant to say was the Fire Ball is pretty useless. First off, you attack with these rocks you find on the floor. These rocks can instant kill anything, apart from the Gargoyle in the BK room. When you throw a rock, one is deducted from yout total (you can have a max of 89, why not 99, I do not know). With the Fire Ball, you lose one rock from your total when you use it, it can instant kill anything you throw it at (including the Gargoyle), and it can be supplied with picking up rocks. It's not a Fire Ball, but more like "Setting your Rocks on Fire". Now, it is true the Gargoyle will be your death unless you can kill it with the Fire Ball, but the truth is, you don't need it when you have the shield. Yep, the shield is the best thing in this game....Wait....what's that? Hand writing? Oh yeah, the Nerd mentioned this in his review, but I must bring this up. What is Saddam doing in a dark castle, writing "Saddam was here" and "Gamers rule!"? I have a feeling someone is trying to frame him somehow, and who can blame him?
Anyway, the far right door is the Shield Room. Completing this level will get you the Awesome Shield of Pwnage. I was pleased to have done this, feeling real satisfaction when getting the shield, with only one problem. The guy can't handle stairs, mice, bats or water without so much as dying, yet he can handle a bolt of lightning being struck on a metal shield....wtf....? Sure, the shield is magical in which it won't hurt Duncan, but I would have thought he would get a tripple heart attack for the mere though of being so close to getting stuck by lightning. Anyway, this shield is awesome. You can no longer duck when you get this item, but why duck when you can become invincible
Ov when ever you feel like it for as long as you like? This can allow you to dodge the Gargoyal's attack by using the shield, and he'll just fly right past you. This works with anything else so long as you can stand still.
The final room is the Black Knight's Door. These will take you to the Black Knight himself. The Gargoyal can appear at random to take hold of you and drop you to the torture chamber (unless you have the Fire Ball....ahem, "Setting your Rocks on Fire" or shield). When you get there to the man himself, it's finally true how much he needs to be defeated. He's drinking all the supply of coffee (I would say ale, but then that would make sense), and you need to defeat him to save all the coffe in the world. He also throws the mugs he drank from at you. This is a very funny sence. I doubt he even knows yout there, he's just going "Yuck, too sweet" *throws mug* "Ug, too strong" "throws mug* "....just right! *sips for a long time, then throws mug* "I hate this mug!"
Ok, those are the levels, lets more onto the game itself, like graphics and music and stuff like that. The graphics....are just terrible. One could mistaken this game for a NES or Master System game, they resemble 8-bit graphics. Not only that, but they are very muddy, washed over blury grapics, making it the thin line between Atari 2600 graphics and the NES/Master System graphics. If there was a system inbetween those those, then it would have graphics like this.
The music is very cliche. It's that sterotypical Dracula music that loops over and over and over. I kinda just drown it out after some time, but what I can't drown out it the annoying as hell sound effects. Those mutants go "nynyny" over and over unless you kill them, and they are just soooooo annoying. WHy create an enemy that goes "nynyny" and have several in a room? Honestly. The bats....I can't even remember how annoying they were, but the most annoying sound effects of them all are the noises you make for tripping over every little thing, and you;ll be doing it a lot.....and I mean a lot. The only thing I can credit the sound effects is that it sounds very clear, and not like they were talking through a fan, which is fairly rare in a Mega Drive game as far as I'm concerned.
Now lets move onto what most people complain about in this game: The controls *Cliche Dracula music plays* Damn it! You are going off, music! *selects the music and turns it off, and waits a minute as the note it was cut at fades away* Damn that's annoying. Now, believe it or not, I think the controls made the game what it is *arrow flashing over me with the words "Crazy" and "Your Serious?" interchanging*. They are unique and make you interact with the game more There's a jump for certain situations you must use like in real life. People are generally annoyed with these controls as it doesn't follow the linear standard platformer controls. There are three jumps, yes, three.
There's the Standing-Still Jump, which is needed to grab onto things such as ledges and rope. There is the Running Jump, which will make you move faster than walking and cover a larger area when jumping. And finally, there is the Kinda-Useless-But-Can-Be-Kinda-Useful-At-Rare-Times Jump (or KUBCBKUARTJ for short =D), which is executed when pressing down and the jump button. This will make you hop a little bit, useful for when you need to, say jump off a cliff, but not by a lot. Kinda like, you know, just walking off a cliff. The jumo doesn't even affect how you fall, it's the same as falling off a cliff. Some people will find a use for the KUBCBKUARTJ, but not me.
The annoying thing is that you trip over pretty much everything. If it's one pixal high, and you walk over it without juming, you'll fall flat on your face (and suprisingly, not die....), if you fall by just a few pixles, you'll spins around for a stupid length of time before regaining your senses. Then there is the throwing the rocks....I quite like this idea, actually. You "rotate" your arm around with the directional pad, and then throw a rock in that direction. This allows you to be more precise with your aim and I even enjoy the frantic times of rotating my arm quickly when a bat in near by, and enjoy the near-death experience that Duncan is feeling. By the way, you know those suits of armour that hold guns that fire lighning bolts? Yep, I don't know what they are either. FYI, I don't quite get what people are getting to with the hole ducking situation. "Oh yeah, the 'logical Up and B to duck thing'". Well, let me blow your mind, you don't need to press Up and B to hold your duck, you just need to press and hold the B button. Tap it for a brief duck.
Overall, I give it a 6.8/10. It's quite a fun game, actually. I enjoyed it partly, but was not to pleased when I completed the game and just got a weak "Congratulations" sign. What I don't understand is that the Macintosh version gets a better reputation than the Mega Drive version. And I played the original as well and the Sega Mega Drive port. From what I can tell, the core game is very much the same (maybe a bit more forgiving on the Macintosh version), yet the Mega Drive port gets a terrible rap. Key word here is
at the time. Back then, the graphics for a game like that were amazing, they were sharp, smooth and pleasing to the eye. The music was good, and the control system was unique. However, the Mega Drive was just that. It has terrible graphics for a system that could produce twice the bits, jerky animations, unforgiving (well, more unforgiving) controls, it felt slow and clunky, and was in no means used as an improved version, but rather just a coloured version which might have slowed down the game (....maybe, don't look at me....I don't know what causes jerky lag in cart games like these). I might like this game, but that doesn't mean it's awesome. It sucks as hard as the rocks you throw in the game. Call it another one of my guilty pleasures.
None the less, once you get into this game, and get used to the controls a little bit, you'll see why this was,
was, credited for being different before it was ruined by the port you are playing, which I told you to play.....which kinda conflicts with what I said about you playing this game, because it's good, but it's bad.....it's a mixed bag. If you can play the original, do so. However, if you want to say "I beat Dark Castle on the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive" like I did, then go ahead and get that Black Knight!
Graphics 3 Sound 2 Addictive 7 Story 1 Depth 4 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 04-28-12
Review Replies: 3
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