Castle of Heart

Released on March 23, 2018 for the Nintendo Switch by 7Levels, Castle of Heart is a side-scrolling action-platformer with modern 3D graphics, featuring a quickly petrifying knight who strives to save his lost love and break his stone-turning curse.

Everything these days is about opening weekend. Something new comes along, and people rush through experiencing it so that they can express a hastily-made opinion, and move onto the next thing. However, the way video games are currently released doesn't fit this method. Games were once vetted by crews of testers. Now, many games are often made by small teams whose end credits fit on one page. With that being the case, game's flaws are often pointed out by the players/consumers themselves, wherein the game developer often replies by attempting to patch the problems. Unfortunately, a game can come out on a Friday, reviewers can roast and devastate it by the end of the weekend, and the zeitgeist moves on. This means that when a game is patched and becomes far better than it was on its original release date, few eyes are still upon it. This has unfortunately been the case with 7Levels excellent side-scrolling 3D action-platformer, Castle of Heart.

 

Why does the zeitgeist have to be so rude?

Castle of Heart features a refreshingly straightforward story--you control a knight who's been cursed by an evil sorcerer. The knight is slowly turning into stone, and without health pickups or timely reaching of health-replenishing save points, he'll crack and break apart--this means that his (top-left on screen) health meter is constantly depleting, even if he isn't being damaged by enemies or traps. The petrifying knight must trek through a feudal village, swampy woods, snowy mountaintop ruins, and finally to the heart of the sorcerer's castle itself, so that the knight can save his lost love, and perhaps break the stoney curse.
Castle of Heart features old-school, side-scrolling action-platformer gameplay, with modern 3D graphics, in the vein of Donkey Kong Country. I reference Donkey Kong Country because that game features a burly, hulking protagonist who controls similarly to the knight in this one. The knight's slightly-floaty jumps and muscular rolls feel very much like my personal favorite ape's, and the game features platforming sequences with ropes and moving...platforms that are very reminiscent of the 1994 Super Nintendo classic. Castle of Heart even features nerve-racking sequences where the knight is sliding down an incline and most make well-timed jumps over perilous pits and spikes, much like Donkey Kong Country's mine cart levels. All that's missing are launch barrels. However, Castle of Heart's combat is just as important as its platforming.

 

Hey, the ground is crumbling beneath you, just like in real life...or maybe that's just my real life? It's probably the zeitgeist's fault.

The knight is equipped with a basic sword, which takes out early enemies in a couple hits, but does little damage to later foes. Enemies include possessed townsfolk, mythical forest monsters, flaming griffins, and teleporting, sentient black magic zombies, among others. Thankfully, the knight's sword isn't the only weapon with which he can take on these foes. The knight can pick up secondary weapons, throughout the game, some well-hidden, many in plain sight. These include more powerful swords, axes, and clubs, as well as projectile weapons like bows and arrows and spears, though only one secondary weapon can be held at a time.
In addition, the knight can also utilize an assortment of tossed weapons (which get their own button), like throwing knives, and fire, ice, and smoke grenades. These can all be held at the same time, up to ten of each. Secondary weapons are lost at death, but the tossed weapons are not.

Gimme that axe!!!

Combat itself is fun and brutal (though not overly bloody or gory). You can adopt a "run and gun" method, where you just tear through the level as quickly as possible, avoiding enemies as much as you can. Or, you can master the combat system, which involves a block button, timing patterns, and trying like hell to hang onto the better secondary weapons. Either way, you'll be factoring your rapidly depleting health meter into your methods. Sure, blazing through a level from checkpoint to checkpoint doesn't give your meter enough time to deplete all the way, but if you actually stop to attack enemies, you get some health back, as well as a little blue orb. The blue orbs, which, like health, are also scattered across each level in addition to the ones you get from killing an enemy, feed a little circular blue meter to the left of the red health meter (the simple screen layout is excellent, and far less cluttered than this sentence). Fill up the blue meter, and your health meter permanently extends just a little bit. Your blue meter progress and growing health meter are carried over from level to level, meaning, by the end of the game, with some work, your health meter can be quite more extensive than what you started with. You can even go back to previously beaten levels to grow your health meter more.

 

Gimme that orb!...but not the spikes...or the fire.

The longer your health meter, the more freedom--i.e. time--you'll have to explore the levels...and you're going to want to explore the levels as much as you can. There's a surface reason: this game is beautiful. The artwork, inspired by 7Levels' native Poland, is beautiful. The levels feel alive, and are full of detail, both in areas with human architecture, as well as those in the natural world. I don't know if these screenshots do it justice. The swamp in particular, with cadres of ravens hanging out in the fore and background just to watch you made my day. There just aren't a lot of non-pixel-art side-scrollers these days. This again reminds me of Donkey Kong Country, with the developers going for an inspired 3D feel that pushes the envelope. There are even some great weather, lighting, and environmental effects, as well. The animations, improved in the patches, are solid, too.
For as much fun as it is to enjoy Castle of Heart's visuals, there's a deeper reason to explore all of the game's nooks and crannies. Each level has purple jewels hidden across it...much like the K.O.N.G. letters in Donkey Kong Country...except there's five per-level here instead of the four in Rare's masterpiece. Find all 100 of the game's purple gems, and not only do you get to see the game's true "good" ending, but you gain the ability to experience the game...without a time-depleting power-meter. This is about as great a bonus as possible for those enjoying the game. Total freedom.

Gimme that purple gem!!! Also, the lights from them gems is real purty.

Explorations also yields some of the game's most powerful secondary weapons. For instance, there's an insanely awesome electric ax that shoots electricity from the foe you hit to all other foes on screen. And there are more cool secondary weapons where that came from. Now's also as good a time as any to talk about some of Castle of Heart's great little touches, like how knocking a lamp down upon foes will set them on fire, or how, without warning, the game can switch into that "mine cart" mode I mentioned above, or the player can wind up in a melee room where all foes must be defeated to progress, or a flooding area, where drowning can only be avoided by continuously moving up, among many other things. This unpredictability is thrilling and gives the game a great sense of momentum. There are even some fun boss fights at select moments.

Few things in life are more satisfying than killing this damn three-headed snake.

Thanks to the patch, framerate and performance issues in the game are now non-existent. 7Levels also added in some very helpful details, like an indicator that marks whether a loose secondary weapon is weaker or stronger than what you're already holding. They've also balanced the game's difficulty, which is still substantial, but fair--after all, save points are plentiful, and lives are unlimited. However, I have a few minor complains--for one, the game is too short. I believe that is reflective in the price (MSRP is $14.99), but after four areas with five levels apiece, I wanted more. Thankfully, going back and searching for all the purple jewels adds to the play time (total is 10-15 hours), and adding permanent chunks to your health meter is addictive. In the same vein, I really love the game's medieval-inspired music, particular the "Serenity" from RE4-esque menu tune, but there's just not enough music, either--each area gets one theme, there's a boss theme, and the aforementioned menu music. I want more.

I blame the zeitgeist!...and also this guy I just set ablaze with my badass fire-sword.

Truthfully, I just want more of this game. If it somehow hasn't come across in all the paragraphs above, I've got a real soft spot for it. It scratches an itch of mine that even a legitimately great side-scroller, like the recently reviewed The Messenger, doesn't. Forward-minded side-scrollers just seem like they are in such short supply. I hope Castle of Heart's initially rocky reception doesn't further discourage their creation. With that said, nothing should discourage a side-scrolling action-platformer fan from picking this game up now. Though Castle of Heart is a short experience, it's one that is now nearly perfect. Furthermore, while the $14.99 starting price is more than fair, the Nintendo eShop has had this game for sale for as low as $1.49. That's just ridiculous! It'll be the best $1.49 you've ever spent!

SCORE: 9.0/10